Photo: The Canadian Press Canadian astronauts (left to right) Dave Williams, Bjarni Tryggvason and David Saint-Jacques attend the opening of The Living In Space during its unveiling at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa on Thursday, May 12, 2011. CANADOS PRESS / Sean Kilpatrick One of Canada’s first astronauts has died. The Canadian Space Agency confirms that Bjarni Tryggvason, who was part of Canada’s first six space travelers, has died at the age of 76. Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, Tryggvason grew up in Vancouver. He joined the Canadian space program in 1983 and flew his only mission on the Discovery space shuttle in 1997. In this 12-day mission, it orbited the Earth 189 times, conducting experiments on the atmosphere and the effect of space flight on the equipment of the bus. After leaving the program in 2008, he returned to teaching at what is now Western University. In 2009, it flew a replica of the Silver Dart, the first heaviest airborne engine ever flown in Canada. His colleagues in the space program remembered him fondly as a meticulous engineer and inventor and as someone who always had a humorous gleam in his eyes.
