Julie Payette

Julie Payette

Julie Payette was born in 1963, in Montreal, Quebec. She was one of two women to fly in space.

She enjoys running, skiing, racquet sports and scuba diving. Julie Payette has a multi-engine commercial pilot license. She plays piano and has sung with the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra Chamber Choir, the Piacere Vocale in Basel in Switzerland, and with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Choir in Toronto, Canada. She is fluent in French and English, and is conversational in Spanish, Italian, Russian and German.

When Julie Payette was in elementary school at age 10, she was asked by other kids, “What you want to be when you grow up?”

“Oh, I’d like to be an astronaut.”

Julie always wanted to be an astronaut, so she always was interested in science. (You need a science degree.)

Julie Payette

What makes Julie Payette’s life very remarkable and admirable is that she is very smart and outgoing. She is/does many different things. She was a computer engineer and has made a robotic arm! Does this prove to you she was very smart? She has tried and experienced many different things, such as being an astronaut and a computer engineer.

Julie also has a multi-engine pilot license; she logged 120 hours as a research operator on board a reduced-gravity aircraft. Julie Payette got her captaincy on the military jet at the Canadian Air Force Base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in February 1996. She got her military instrument rating in 1997. Julie Payette has logged more than 900 hours of flight time, including 450 hours on high performance jet aircraft.

Julie’s life has taught me two important lessons:

1) Julie did and tries many different subjects that interest her. This is why she is so unique.

2) She followed her dream and tried very hard in school, then graduated with distinction. She attended many different universities while getting her science degree. She says, “It’s definitely worth it.” She encourages all youngsters who want to be astronauts to go for it.

I chose Julie Payette as my hero because she put her heart into everything. Also like said before, she was interested in many different things. This is why she is so unique to me!

Julie Payette is still alive today and is 43 years old. She currently works mostly with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She is married and has one child.

Julie Payette's Web (I made it.)

Julie received one of six Canadian scholarships to attend the United World College of the Atlantic in South Wales, UK (1980). She received the highest undergraduate award at McGill University. She graduated with distinction in 1986. She also won the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers 1994 distinction for exceptional achievement by a young engineer.

I have learned to try harder and put my heart into everything I do. I also learned that I want to try new and different things/subjects because being a computer engineer and an astronaut makes you a cooler person, and also smarter!