Dr. Tanya Harrison

This planetary geologist has worked on nearly every Mars rover while connecting government, universities, the private sector, and the public.

When NASA deployed a small six-wheeled robot named Sojourner on Mars in 1997, space-obsessed 11-year-old Tanya Harrison was watching.

“When NASA released the little animated GIF of Sojourner driving onto the surface, I thought, ‘I want to work on Mars rovers,’” she said. “I was laser focused on that goal from there out.”

Read more: Tanya Harrison: Roving on Mars by Matthew R. Francis

When Canadian and European Space Agency leaders reaffirmed their commitment to work together in June, leaders focused their public remarks primarily on shared exploration goals and decades of fruitful partnership.

“Canada and the European Space Agency are working on a number of projects all the way from exploration to Earth observation, communication, navigation and many other domains,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in an interview with Canada’s CTV News. “This cooperation has to be deepened because it is absolutely fruitful for both sides.”

But Aschbacher also mentioned another critical component to the relationship. He noted the importance of Europe, Canada and other countries working together at a time when “the United States is focusing much more on the domestic activities and therefore international cooperation being maybe not of the highest priority, at least in space.”

Aschbacher is right about changing U.S. space priorities.

After decades of working closely with international space agencies, the Trump administration is reevaluating programs through an “America First” lens, which prioritize domestic prosperity over foreign-policy considerations. Through that lens, policymakers would consider whether a joint space program created U.S. jobs, improved the U.S. balance of trade with another nation or offered access to unique technology.

Read more: A New Approach to Space Diplomacy: Hard-hitting Calculations Outweigh Foreign-policy Considerations by Debra Werner

US President Donald Trump last week laid out one of the biggest challenges ever for NASA — to land the first humans on Mars.

But his detailed budget request for the fiscal year 2026 also proposed cancelling dozens of the space agency’s missions, including projects to study Earth, Mars and Venus. And the next day, on 31 May, Trump withdrew his nomination for NASA chief, the businessman and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman.

All of this has left the space agency in turmoil, and the scientists who normally participate in NASA’s missions split over whether they support the push for the red planet.

Read more: Trump wants to put humans on Mars — here’s what scientists think by Alexandra Witze

Dr. Tanya Harrison, 39, was a planetary scientist working a high-profile job in the space industry when she decided to make a major life change. Between experiencing harassment on the job and working 12-hour days with no time for anything else, she realized it was time to try another path.

In 2023, Dr. Harrison left her job and moved back to her hometown of Seattle, and eventually Ottawa. This pivotal decision sparked a journey of self-discovery, during which she reconnected with her love for film photography and creative expression.

In this series, Reimagining Wealth, we explore the evolving definition of wealth in today’s world. Here, we talk to Dr. Harrison, now a consultant, author and science communicator, about her career shift and her journey to greater personal fulfilment.

Read more: Burnout, Bullying and a Breakthrough: One Woman’s Path to Reinvention by Jessica Patterson

Pop star Katy Perry and five other women safely returned to Earth after reaching space aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket.

The singer was joined by Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King, who said a highlight of the flight was hearing Perry sing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

After landing back on Earth, Perry said she felt “super connected to life” and “so connected to love”.

The flight lasted around 11 minutes and took the six women more than 100km (62 miles) above Earth, crossing the internationally recognised boundary of space and giving them a few moments of weightlessness.

[…]

Dr Tanya Harrison, from the Outer Space Institute experts network said: “A lot of the comments that I saw on social media were things about, ‘Oh, it’s like the Real Housewives go to Mars’ or ‘It’s the oligarchy in space, read the room, the timing is terrible.'”

But: “There were a lot of positive takes as well. People were like, ‘Oh, this is so cool. Katy Perry is going to space.'”

Dr Harrison, who had previously worked on Nasa missions to Mars said: “The cynical part of me wants to call it a marketing stunt. This is a company promoting the fact they can launch tourists into space.”

However she noted the all-women team might “change the demographics a little bit of who might want to do something like this.”

Read more: Blue Origin Crew Safely Back on Earth After All-Female Space Flight by Maddie Malloy and Victoria Gill

A vibrant pink rocket, soaring towards the cosmos—this is the captivating image greeting readers of Mia and the Martians. The children’s book whisks imaginations to the red planet with its intrepid protagonist, Mia, and her feline co-pilot, Nebula. Through Mia’s eyes, children see a young explorer driven by her love for Mars, the very world she plans to showcase at the school science fair.

Astrophysicists Emma Louden and Tanya Harrison have skillfully crafted a tale of discovery and inspiration, with illustrator Wouter Pasman giving life to the eagerly awaited adventure. Louden, a dedicated scholar from Yale, takes readers on a journey that mirrors her own lifelong fascination with the stars. Her goal? To inspire a new generation to gaze upwards with wonder and possibility.

Read more: Young Astronomer’s Tale Aims to Ignite Cosmic Curiosity by Maya Edwards

Opening the newly published children’s book “Mia and the Martians,” readers see a young girl rushing to the edge of the page, proudly outstretching a pink rocket in her hand. The reader learns what the girl, Mia, is going to present for next week’s science fair.

“My favorite planet, of course! Mars!” exclaims the protagonist, Mia.

In her custom-built spaceship, Mia embarks on a fantastical journey to Mars with her co-pilot cat, Nebula. They meet the “Martians,” based on the real-life rovers of Mars throughout the story. Enlisting the rovers’ help, Mia learns the lesson of perseverance and finds a way back home to Earth. 

To bring this story to the page, astrophysicists Emma Louden GRD ’26 and Tanya Harrison partnered with Wouter Pasman, an illustrator and space enthusiast to co-author their debut children’s book.

Read more: Yale Astronomy Graduate Student Writes a Martian Adventure Children’s Book (Yale News)

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has landed in New Mexico, wrapping up a three-month test mission that faced technical issues and forced it to leave the two astronauts it carried temporarily stranded in space.

The spacecraft touched down at White Sands Space Harbor in the New Mexico desert at 04:01 GMT on Saturday. The two crew members it had flown to space – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – remained at the International Space Station (ISS) due to safety concerns with the craft.

[…]

Wilmore and Williams, whose mission was initially planned for just eight days, must return to Earth on a vehicle from Boeing’s rival SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, in February 2025.

“It must be demoralising in a way when you’ve gone expecting to be up there for eight days and suddenly your mission turns into eight months,” Tanya Harrison, a fellow at the University of British Columbia’s Outer Space Institute, told Al Jazeera.

“At the same time this is a highly trained crew that knows that stuff like this can happen … they’re trained, they’re ready,” she said.

Read more: Boeing’s Starliner returns to Earth – leaving crew behind