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As the second Canadian to board the International Space Station, astronaut Julie Payette is the perfect complement to complete the trio of spokespeople for WorldSkills Calgary 2009. Representing the field of technology at the 40th WorldSkills Competition, Payette encourages young girls to follow their dreams, no matter what their field may be. She also embodies the passion and expertise that perpetrates the global skills movement, igniting excitement amongst this year's Competitors.

Payette launched into space for the second time this July, where her assignment was to deliver the Japanese-built Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed section to the International Space Station.

As the flight engineer, Payette monitored the equipment and performed checklists during launch. During five space walks, she maneuvered three robotic arms and helped install a "front porch" for running experiments outside the station.

During Payette's first space mission in 1999, her crew performed the first manual docking of the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space station and delivered four tonnes of supplies. She logged over 465 hours in space.

From September 1999 to December 2002, Payette represented the Astronaut corps at the European and Russian space agencies where she supervised procedure development, equipment verification and space hardware processing for the International Space Station Program.

Since January 2003, Payette has worked as a CAPCOM (Spacecraft Communicator) at Mission Control Center in Houston and was Lead CAPCOM for Space Shuttle mission STS-121 in 2006. The CAPCOM is responsible for all communications between ground controllers and the astronauts in flight.

Payette made history on July 15 by joining fellow Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk - and 11 other astronauts - aboard the International Space Station. This marked the first time in history that two Canadian astronauts met in space.