Science & Tech
Months after Jeremy Hansen flew to the moon on the Artemis II mission, another Canadian astronaut has achieved his spaceflight dream
Six months to the day after Jeremy Hansen became the first Canadian and first non-American to fly around the moon, another Canadian astronaut has embarked on a long-duration mission to the International Space Station.
Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk flew to low Earth orbit on Oct. 1 as a part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission. Unlike Hansen’s 10-day sprint to the moon and back on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Kutryk will be pacing himself for a half-year marathon of ISS science and activities.
Storm clouds over Cape Canaveral, Florida kept spectators guessing until the last moment whether the launch would be a go, but NASA said launch conditions met their safety protocols and at 11:10 a.m. EDT, the crew rocketed aloft as planned aboard the Falcon 9 rocket.
“I’m in space. I don’t really believe it yet. It does feel weird, though,” Kutryk said upon reaching orbit shortly after launch.
Canadian Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly, whose portfolio includes the CSA, was on site not only to watch the rocket punch through the clouds, but to talk with NASA about what’s next for Canada in space. In a post-launch scrum, Joly said Kutryk’s mission carries the torch from David Saint-Jacques, the last CSA astronaut to visit the ISS in 2018-19.
“David did great work when he was in space,” Joly said, adding that his continued efforts to educate the public about space exploration have been “really impactful and important.”
Saint-Jacques was also present for the Crew-13 launch and will be supporting Kutryk’s family during the mission, Joly said. Kutryk’s wife, Heather, is currently expecting their third child and will give birth while Kutryk is on station. “We really send them a lot of love and strength,” said Joly.
The launch comes at a time of heightened trade tensions between Canada and the U.S. Joly said Kutryk’s participation in the Crew-13 mission is a symbol that the two countries can continue to work together in space. In meetings with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman this week, Joly conveyed that each partner has trust in the other and that Canada can offer technology to support NASA’s goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade.
“We want to play a bigger part in everything linked to space exploration, but particularly with the moon. Being able to have more of a Canadian presence, particularly [in robotics] … that’s something we’ve been talking about a lot,” Joly said.
Working with Kutryk on the Crew-13 mission are NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Tereyatnikov. Collectively, they will conduct more than 200 experiments, including some involving made-in-Canada tech. The maple leaf-led science programs include AstroFit, an exercise regime designed to keep astronauts healthy in microgravity, a mental well-being study called C-STARS, and investigations into the impacts of spaceflight on bones, lungs, blood and other major body systems.
Kutryk will also do extensive outreach to students and organizations in Canada, including with La Tablée des Chefs, a Montreal-area organization that redistributes surplus food left over from conferences and other major events. The astronaut was attracted to this organization because his family are multi-generational farmers with a cattle farm near Beauvallon, Alta.
Kutryk will not only highlight Tablée’s food-recovery work, but also the teamwork needed in the kitchen. “The chef is not alone, you know?” said Tablée founder Jean-François Archambault. “Just like an astronaut in space … everybody has this role, and you kind of find that same synergy and energy in the kitchen.”
That synergy in space will not only see Kutryk do science and food prep activities, but possibly also a spacewalk — which, if it happens, would be the culmination of the former Royal Canadian Air Force test pilot’s lifelong dream and decades of work to finally reach space.
As a reminder of where he came from, Kutryk is carrying with him personal mementos, including his great-grandfather’s pocket watch, which was sent up to the ISS on a cargo mission earlier this year.
“That watch was probably built in about the early 1900s,” Kutryk said in a video press conference from Houston on Sept. 24. “If you think about that time — and what was going on where my farm is in Alberta, and the people who were working there at that time — I think it would have been completely impossible for them to have any inkling of where that watch could be 100 years later.”
Kutryk said he sees the watch not only as an important heirloom for his young children, but also “a really neat metaphor for how much the world can change because of technology, because of how we explore.”
The January/February issue of Canadian Geographic will feature more about Kutryk’s journey and mission. Watch for it on newsstands starting Dec. 14, or better yet, subscribe and never miss an issue.
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