NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be making history next year as the first Canadian to fly to the moon. But first — he's making a stop in Niagara Falls as the city prepares to make history during the total solar eclipse on Monday.
Hansen and David Cheney, a program executive in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Heliophysics Division, are joining the thousands of people heading to Western New York for the total solar eclipse.
"I'm always impressed, and actually a little relieved, that people are actually interested in space,” Hansen said. “We maybe don’t talk about it in our daily lives but when I meet with people, the passion for this comes out, and I see it in a lot of people.”
On Saturday, this passion for space could be seen in Mark Cornelius — who traveled to Niagara Falls from Pennsylvania and has been planning to see this eclipse for the past seven years.
“We’ve been talking about coming here for this event since three months before she [my daughter] was born,” he said. “They say that when you’re in totality as opposed to anywhere else, there’s a different emotional experience because it’s so dark. It’s so different.”
This eclipse is serving as a chance for emotion and education.
“Educating the public on what the total solar eclipse is and what the sun does for us is very valuable,” Chaney said. “Whatever you’re observing, share it with the people around you – this is what I learned and this is what you learned. We can all learn a lot more together.”
Max Salisbury and his family live in Utah but are making a stop in Niagara Falls during their road trip for this real-world learning experience.
“We were living in the East when the last eclipse went through the West and we missed it. So when this one was in the East… we really ought to go,” he said. “We figured a couple of days off from school is worth it for a rare scientific experience.”
As Western New York nears the big day, Hansen reminded his neighbors to appreciate the significance of the eclipse.
“As people watch the eclipse on Monday, just think of all the humans over time who have witnessed these things and the questions it’s caused us to ask,” he said. “That curiosity of humanity has pushed us to this place where we now eclipse 8 billion people on the planet.”
