She flew on the Discovery mission in May 1999 for the first manual docking with the International Space Station, operating the Canadarm during the flight. She is the chief astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency and went on to become a CapCom (spacecraft communicator) at the Mission Control Center in Houston. Payette returned to space in 2009, where she served as a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour and was the flight engineer and lead robotic operator during the mission. Payette was selected as an astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency in 1992, and began training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in 1996. In October 2017, Payette assumed the role of governor general of Canada.