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Two men with ties to Halton are one step closer to exploring the final frontier.

The Canadian Space Agency has whittled its list down to the final 17, after nearly 4000 applied to become Canada’s Next Astronauts.

One of those people could be Burlington native Matt Bamsey. Bamsey currently works for the German Aerospace Center as the chief systems engineer, tasked with building a greenhouse that will provide fresh food to a German Antarctic station.

Also still in the running is Milton’s Alex Delorey. Born in New Brunswick, the mechanical engineer is now employed as a project manager working on plans to refurbish up to six nuclear reactors on the Bruce Peninsula.

Both Delorey and Bamsey have undergone extensive physical, psychological and medical testing. They were put into scenarios where they had to prove their critical, analytical and creative thinking skills and had put their fitness level, resilience and ability to work in extreme conditions to the test.

The winners will be announced this summer.