‘We’re all one people’: Canadian reflects on a trip to space

Article content

Henry Wolfond returned from space Friday determined to go back.

“I can’t wait to go again,” he said moments after his ride, a New Shepard capsule operated by Blue Origin, landed in the West Texas desert near the spaceport from which it had launched just 10 minutes earlier.

Gesturing to his wife, Rochelle Reichert, he added: “She’s coming with me next time.”

The newly minted Canadian astronaut is also chairman and CEO of Bayshore Capital in Toronto, and chair of the Confronting Antisemitism Committee of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

Article content

As he exited the capsule after the rocket ride to the edge of space, Wolfond held his hand over his heart for a moment, then pointed to the heavens where he had been floating in zero gravity just minutes before.

Last week, before his flight, Wolfond told the National Post that he hoped his journey would help bring attention to antisemitism and broader hatred.

“Hatred of Jews became normalized,” he said. “Hateful words escalate to violence, to harassment, to intimidation, to blocking businesses, and ultimately to murder. I hope that’s not the path that we’re on, but I’m very frightened that we could be.

“So my hope in connecting that to this mission is that I can reach out to people, responsible Canadians who see that the same way that I do, will be aligned with us, and will speak out against antisemitism and speak out against all hatred. I don’t think any hate should be accepted in our society, and people need to recognize, if it’s hatred against the Jews today, it can become hatred against them tomorrow.”

Article content

Article content

Back on Earth Friday, he echoed those thoughts.

“It’s beyond anything like I expected before,” he said of the experience. “It’s perspective that adds to the mission that I’m on to combat hate and antisemitism. Seeing the world from up that high where you don’t see the borders, you don’t see the divisions, you don’t see all of the lines that divide us where we hate each other.”

He was close to tears as he added: “We’re all one people, we’re all on this very fragile small planet. It’s amazing.”

Wolfond’s personal history with flight began when he dreamed of becoming an astronaut, after watching Gemini and Apollo missions on TV as a child. He tried to become a fighter pilot, but lacked the 20/20 vision required. Still he took to the air, and even now sometimes moonlights as a professional pilot on charter, medevac and organ retrieval flights around the world.

He once rode in the Concorde, which still holds the record as the fastest and highest-flying passenger plane in history. But Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule passed the Concorde’s cruising altitude of 60,000 feet or about 18 kilometres, and its top speed of Mach 2.2 or 2,700 kph, just 90 seconds into its four-minute ascent.

Article content

It eventually reached a speed of 3,600 kph — roughly Mach 3 — and an altitude of 351,000 feet or 107 kilometres. The capsule and rocket separated, and the rocket fell back to Earth, reigniting its engine in a hair-raising deceleration that ended with it landing in a cloud of dust. The capsule, with its fragile human cargo, took a little longer to return to the ground, descending gently beneath three parachutes.

Wolfond had a repurposed quotation from another astronaut before he took to the skies: “I end these conversations with a bit of an adaptation of Neil Armstrong’s immortal words when he set foot on the moon. And that is that this is one giant step for me, and hopefully it will be a small step towards turning the tide on hate in this country and around the world.”

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Article content