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Two Ottawa residents are among 17 candidates on the final launch pad to become Canadian astronauts.

Robert Riddell, a medical officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, and Jason Leuschen, a student pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, were named finalists Monday by the Canadian Space Agency.

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Photo by COLE BURSTON / THE CANADIAN PRESS

From an original pool of 3,800 applicants in August 2016, the list was narrowed to 72, then 32, now 17. Only two candidates will be chosen this summer to relocate to Houston, Texas, and take part in NASA’s basic training at the Johnson Space Centre.

Riddell, originally from Belleville, earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Ottawa while on his way to becoming a physician. In an online profile on the space agency website, he said he’d most like to walk on the Moon.

“For some of you, that might not sound so exciting, given all the talk about Mars,” he says, “but for me, growing up, the earliest memories I

Photo by COLE BURSTON / THE CANADIAN PRESS

have of astronauts are pictures of them walking on the Moon.”

Leuschen, born in Murrayville, B.C., has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and is training to be a helicopter pilot. In his online profile, Leuschen says he would most like to explore Mars.

“I’d love to see the red dust sandstorms, the white polar ice caps, and the solar system’s largest volcano,” he says in a video clip. “Plus the gravity is only 37 per cent of the Earth’s, so I might finally be able to dunk a basketball.”

Canada has recruited 12 astronauts in three campaigns and eight have taken part in 16 space missions.