David Saint-Jacques has always been keen on exploring the world around him. Prior to joining the Canadian space program in May 2009, he practised family medicine in a northern Canadian village overlooking Hudson Bay. Before that, he worked as an astrophysicist in Cambridge, United Kingdom; Tokyo, Japan; Hawaii, USA; and Montreal, Canada. He was also a clinical faculty lecturer for McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and an engineer for a Quebec-based small business.
On December 3, 2018, he flew to the International Space Station as an Expedition 58/59 flight engineer and co-pilot of the Soyuz spacecraft. During his 204-day mission, he conducted a series of scientific experiments, robotics tasks and technology demonstrations. David Saint-Jacques became the fourth Canadian Space Agency astronaut to perform a spacewalk and the first to use Canadarm2 to catch a visiting spacecraft.
Since his return to Earth on June 24, 2019, David Saint-Jacques has been working on various projects at the CSA, while also representing the CSA at NASA. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked as a physician at a hospital in Montreal. At the CSA, he has been collaborating on the human interfaces for Canadarm3, Canada’s contribution to the NASA-led Lunar Gateway. He is also contributing to Health Beyond, a CSA initiative that aims to stimulate and support innovative and sustainable solutions that could address the healthcare challenges faced by astronauts in deep space and by people living in remote communities. Since 2023, he serves as Deputy Director, Lunar Exploration Program at the Canadian Space Agency, helping define Canada’s contribution to the Artemis program.
