Astronaut Joshua Kutryk says it’s no coincidence Canadians are being asked to join space missions

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk says he feels ‘unbelievably grateful’ to represent Canada during the mission in September.

Joshua Kutryk will be joining Jeremey Hansen as the second Canadian astronaut to visit space in 2026.

The Canadian Space Agency announced this week that Kutryk will be going on his first space mission with NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13, which will head to the International Space Station (ISS) in September.

On Friday, the Alberta-born astronaut told CTV News Channel that he’s filled with Canadian pride and excitement for the six-month mission that he’s been preparing to join for almost four years.

“There’s a lot of challenge wrapped up into getting ready for that,” he said. “Some of it is psychological, just getting ready for the isolation, the time away, the risk management part. A lot of it is also very technical, learning to operate these systems, the vehicles, the space station itself.”

Canada’s space involvement no coincidence: Kutryk

Kutryk will be the first Canadian to be part of NASA’s commercial crew program, which means that it has commercial providers to transfer the crew to the ISS and back. He said it’s not a coincidence that Canada keeps being asked to take part in space missions, like Hansen, who was part of the Artemis II mission earlier this year.

“It happens because of what we do well in Canada,” he said. “It’s the result of careful policy and sustained funding. But even more so, it’s the result of technologies that we build in Canada that are needed in the world to do things like this, to do difficult expiration missions.”

CTV News science and technology expert Dan Riskin told CTV News Channel on Friday that Hansen’s recent involvement in moon exploration was a reflection of NASA’s appreciation of what the Canadian Space Agency has done to help make space missions work.

“Canada has some smart people that really punch above their weight, and deliver some fantastic technologies that have really moved this space program forward, and they’ve worked very closely with NASA all along,” he said. “Jeremy Hansen’s trip around the moon was a celebration of that, and Jeremy Hansen, of course, made great contributions on that flight, as well, in keeping with our sort of reputation.”

Research will be Kutryk’s main job

Research will be one of Kutryk’s main responsibilities, along with running the space station. That includes testing technologies that will help future moon explorations, as well as how to keep humans alive for long periods of time on those missions.

He added that another part of the testing will focus on solving problems on Earth. While space takes the aging process and “puts it into fast forward,” Kutryk said that makes for a prime environment to test medical science, like cancer research.

With only a few months to go before he blasts off on a mission he’s spent years preparing for, Kutryk said there’s one thing he’s most excited about.

“The six-year-old kid in me that has always dreamt about doing this, just wanted to look out the biggest window in the Space Station,” he said, referring to the space station’s Cupola, which observes the Earth. “That’s what I can’t wait to do.”