Canadian engineer, Bjarni Tryggvason, has died. He was one of Canada’s first astronauts. The Canadian Space Agency confirmed the saddening piece of news. The agency stated that Bjarni was 76 at the time of his death. However, the news of Tryggvason’s death was first shared online by former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin. Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, April 6, Melvin wrote, “Rest in Peace Penguin classmate. It was an honor to train and work with you.” Melvin extended sincere condolences to his family. Here is everything we know about the sudden death of Bjarni Tryggvason.
On another hand, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) confirmed that Bjarni had died. The agency wrote that with profound sadness and heavy hearts, they learned that former CSA astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason has passed away. It was further added that Bjarni applied the highest stranded to everything he undertook. Social media is flooded with heartfelt tributes and condolences. Since he was one of the first astronauts of Canada, people are saddened to have lost him to heaven. However, Bjarni’s cause of death has not been revealed yet. No source seems to have details surfacing his unfortunate and unexpected death.
Who Was Bjarni Tryggvason?
The 76-year-old engineer was born on September 21, 1945, in Reykjavik, Iceland. However, he grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. As per reports, Bjarni had the experience of about 4,000 hours of flight. Tryggvason had been a flight instructor and holds an Airline Transport Rating. Needless to say, the man was active in aerobatic flight. Due to passion and hard work, he even had qualified as captain in the Tutor jet trainer with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
After graduating with engineering physics from the University of British Columbia in 1972, Bjarni worked as a meteorologist with the cloud physics group at the Atmospheric Environment Service in Toronto in 1972 and 1973. Reportedly, Tryggvason was among the six Canadian astronauts selected in December 1983. To Steven MacLean for the CANEX-2 set of experiments, he was a backup Payload Specialist. He was also the Project Engineer for the design of the SVS target spacecraft.
The aircraft was deployed during that mission. He was serving as a research officer at the Low-Speed Aerodynamics Laboratory located at the National Council of Canada. Before lifting off on his own mission, Bjarni went through training as a backup for space shuttle Columbia’s STS-52 crew. Needless to say, the sudden passing of Bjarni Tryggvason has affected his near and dear
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