Julie Payette

In a modern and innovative society, where advancements are plentiful and communication is instantaneous, science and technology are a part of everyday life.

It's been a great honour and privilege to serve Canadians.

I welcome comments. I think criticism can be very constructive and can help further. I mean, there's no perfect perfection anywhere. There's no perfect picture.

I am from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I was born there, and I am a twelfth Montrealer.

A lot of people, I think, would love to see the earth from above, wear a spacesuit. Certainly, when I was a kid, I wanted to wear a spacesuit.

I'd love to serve on the Enterprise.

Whatever your interests or abilities, I encourage you stay active during the holiday season.

As a 12th-generation Canadian, I'm exactly just that, a Canadian, and I am here to serve all Canadians of all backgrounds, of all walks of life, either new or not so new.

There was a substantial vinyl collection in my home, and my mom played piano. We, the children, were enrolled in piano lessons very early on.

I'm 9, 10, and I'm watching the Apollo astronauts go to the moon. We're sitting on the floor of a school, and they have this... huge TV, and I'm looking at that, and I'm thinking 'Me, I would like to do that.' But it didn't dawn on me then that they were American; I was Canadian. They were men; I was a girl. They were test pilots, military folks.

Every event, whether they're positive or negative, shapes us. And sometimes, events happen that we couldn't even fathom.

If you want more kids to become engineers in space, travellers, and pilots, then you have to expose them to those types of careers.