Canadian Minister of Industry James Moore made a commitment today in Ottawa that Canada will send two Canadian astronauts to space by 2024.

Moore was joined by Commander Chris Hadfield and astronauts Jeremy Hansen and David Saint-Jacques.

The announcement made today at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum came out as the result of the Government of Canada’s decision to renew Canada’s participation in the International Space Station (ISS), which is a joint effort made by space agencies from Canada, the United States, Japan, Russia, and the European Union.

It has been know that Canada has become the third country to extend its participation in ISS until 2024.

The announcement follows the footsteps of Col. Chris Hadfield’s historic mission as Commander of the ISS.

The commitment clearly signals Canada’s involvement in future space missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Apart from this, Moore also made three major announcements, i.e. the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will provide $10.5 million to MDA to continue technical support for Canadarm2, Dextre, and the mobile base on the ISS.

Secondly, the nation is also extending by two years its collaboration with NASA to participate in the Mars Science Laboratory mission, also known as the Mars Curiosity rover.

In the third and the final announcement Moore said that four new Canadian science experiments to be conducted aboard the ISS in the fall.

It was told that one of the Canadian astronauts has been scheduled to travel to the ISS by 2019, and the other by 2024.