... Flight Engineer of Soyuz TMA . ... He began astronaut training in February 1984 and served as backup payload specialist to Marc Garneau for the October 1984 space shuttle mission STS-41G. Dr. Thirsk has been involved in various Canadian Space Agency projects including parabolic flight campaigns and mission planning. ... He is currently training in Russia to serve as the backup crewmember to European astronaut Roberto Vittori for the April 2005 Soyuz 10S taxi mission to the International Space...