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MONTREAL - Veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield is keeping mum amid speculation he is slotted to blast off in November 2012 on a six-month visit to the International Space Station.
The Canadian Space Agency has planned an announcement Thursday morning on what it calls a future space mission for a Canadian astronaut.
Gary Goodyear, the minister of state for science and technology, will unveil the details at the agency near Montreal.
It's been reported that Hadfield will become the first Canadian commander of the space station after he arrives on a Russian Soyuz space craft.
He has already been trained to live and work on board the huge space station for a period of up to six months.
A government spokesperson said Wednesday that Goodyear will announce that a Canadian astronaut will command the space station during a mission in 2012-2013. He will also name the astronaut at the event.
Other than the United States and Russia, Canadian astronauts have participated in more space missions than any other countries, the spokesperson said.
Hadfield, who just turned 51 on Aug. 29, has referred all queries to the space agency.
In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, he was evasive when asked if he would be part of a space station crew in 2012.
"Until there are official announcements, until it has been truly agreed to, signed in black and white and the ink is dry. . I'm not in a position to confirm or deny that," Hadfield said in mid-August.
"I think it would be a great natural evolution of Canadian space flight and, if I'm to be the guy, that would be wonderful for me."
Hadfield was back-up to fellow astronaut Bob Thirsk who spent a Canadian record-breaking six months on the orbiting space lab in 2009.
CSA president Steve MacLean, who will be at the news conference, has already said a Canadian would probably not be headed back into space until at least 2012.
Hadfield, who was born in Sarnia, Ont. and raised in Milton, was first selected to become an astronaut in June 1992.
The father of three made his first space flight in November 1995 aboard the U.S. shuttle Atlantis which docked with the orbiting Russian space station Mir.
He is the only Canadian to board the Russian space station which eventually re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up.
Hadfield travelled to the International Space Station in April 2001 to help deliver and install Canadarm2. He also performed two space walks during the 11-day flight.
In May of this year, the 18-year space veteran commanded NEEMO 14, a two-week underwater mission for NASA off the coast of Florida.
NEEMO stands for the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project.
