Robert Brent "Bob" Thirsk is a Canadian engineer and physician, and a CSA astronaut. He holds the Canadian records for the longest space flight (187 days 20 hours) and the most time spent in space (204 days 18 hours).
On June 20, 1996, Thirsk flew aboard space shuttle mission STS-78 (the life and microgravity Spacelab mission) as a payload specialist. During this 17-day flight aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, he and his six crew mates performed 43 experiments devoted to the study of life and materials science. Most of these experiments were conducted within the pressurized Spacelab laboratory module situated in the orbiter’s payload bay. The life science experiments investigated changes in plants, animals and humans under spaceflight conditions. The materials science experiments examined protein crystallization, fluid dynamics and high-temperature solidification of multi-phase materials in microgravity.
While on STS-78, Thirsk wrote two columns for the Calgary Sun newspaper. This was the first occasion in which an astronaut wrote and filed a story to a newspaper—and had it published—while the astronaut was still in orbit.
During the ISS 20/21 flight, he was visited by two other Canadians: Julie Payette (Space Shuttle Endeavour STS 127) and space tourist Guy Laliberté on Soyuz TMA-16 at the end of September 2009. The meeting between Thirsk and Payette in July 2009 was the first time two Canadians met in space.[6] He and the Soyuz TMA-15 crew returned to earth December 1, 2009.
