From a small Alberta city where the stars seemed unreachably far, Joshua Kutryk carried a childhood dream across decades of discipline until it became a mission. On September 12, the Canadian Armed Forces colonel and test pilot will ascend aboard a Falcon 9 rocket to join the International Space Station, where he will spend six months tending to humanity's most complex construction and conducting research that can only be done beyond the pull of Earth. His journey is a quiet reminder that aspirations held long enough, and worked toward honestly, have a way of becoming real.
Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk prepares for September ISS mission
I always viewed it as almost unattainable, but it was still really good for me to have that goal.
Mark
So he's been training for five years to do this. What exactly will he be doing up there for six months?
Mimi
Two things, really. First, he's maintaining the station itself—it's incredibly complex machinery, and the crew has to keep it running, fix things when they break. Second, he's conducting scientific research that's been designed by researchers around the world, including Canadian projects.
Luke
But he said he's not a scientist by training. So is he running experiments, or is he more of a technician?
Mimi
He's doing both. The crew carries out research designed by others, so he's not designing it, but he's executing it. And the maintenance work is highly technical—that's where his test pilot background really comes in.
Mark
Why does it matter that he's Canadian? Is there something specific Canada is doing on the station?
Mimi
Canada has a long history in space exploration. This mission continues that presence. There are Canadian research projects planned for his time there, and it's part of Canada's ongoing contribution to the station.
Luke
Do we know what those Canadian projects are? The source doesn't name them.
Mimi
No, the source doesn't specify which projects. It just says there are Canadian projects planned during his mission.
Mark
He said it feels magical. After five years of training, does that surprise you—that he still feels that sense of wonder?
Mimi
Not really. He's been dreaming about this since childhood. Even though he trained for years, the actual moment of it happening is different from the preparation. The dream and the reality finally converging—that's where the magic is.
Luke
One thing I noticed: he launches September 12 at the earliest. That's a specific date, but "no earlier than" means it could slip. We don't know if it will actually launch then.
Mimi
Right. That's the scheduled date, but spaceflight has variables. Weather, technical checks—it could move.
Il Polso
- A Fort Saskatchewan boy who once dismissed his own dream as unattainable is now days away from leaving the planet entirely.
- The Crew-13 mission demands Kutryk master two enormous roles at once — keeping a machine of staggering complexity alive while running scientific experiments designed by researchers across the globe.
- Five years of intensive training, built on a career as a military colonel and test pilot, have compressed into a countdown that now measures in days rather than years.
- Canada's presence at the forefront of spaceflight rests partly on this mission, with several Canadian research projects specifically designed for Kutryk's six months aboard the station.
- On September 12, a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center will carry him and three crewmates into orbit — the moment where childhood fascination finally becomes daily work.
From a small Alberta city where the stars seemed unreachably far, Joshua Kutryk carried a childhood dream across decades of discipline until it became a mission. On September 12, the Canadian Armed Forces colonel and test pilot will ascend aboard a Falcon 9 rocket to join the International Space Station, where he will spend six months tending to humanity's most complex construction and conducting research that can only be done beyond the pull of Earth. His journey is a quiet reminder that aspirations held long enough, and worked toward honestly, have a way of becoming real.
Joshua Kutryk grew up in Fort Saskatchewan dreaming of space, but the goal always felt just out of reach — something to aspire toward rather than expect. Now, weeks away from a September 12 launch from Kennedy Space Center, that distance has collapsed. He will ride a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit alongside two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, bound for a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station as part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission.
The road here ran through the Canadian Armed Forces, a career as a test pilot, and a 2017 selection by the Canadian Space Agency that opened the door to five years of intensive preparation. In a recent interview, Kutryk reflected on the improbability of it all — as a child, he never quite believed the dream was possible, yet holding onto it shaped everything that followed.
Aboard the station, his responsibilities will split between the operational and the scientific. The ISS is, by his own description, probably the most complicated thing humanity has ever built, and keeping it functioning is itself a full-time task. Alongside that, he will conduct research conceived by scientists around the world, including several Canadian projects designed specifically for his mission — experiments that can only be run in the weightless environment of low Earth orbit.
For Kutryk, the launch carries meaning beyond personal achievement. He speaks of Canadian pride, of his country's long tradition at the edge of spaceflight, and of the luck and support that helped carry him here. In a matter of weeks, the boy who thought the stars were unattainable will be living among them.
Joshua Kutryk grew up in Fort Saskatchewan with a dream that felt impossibly distant. He wanted to be an astronaut, but the goal seemed so far removed from ordinary life that he never quite believed it would happen. Now, at the threshold of September, that childhood fantasy is about to become his reality. The Canadian astronaut is days away from launching to the International Space Station, a moment he describes with wonder—it feels, he says, really magical.
Kutryk will lift off no earlier than September 12 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, riding a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit. He will travel alongside two American astronauts, Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. The four of them will ride together inside a Crew Dragon capsule, bound for the station where Kutryk will spend the next six months. The mission is designated SpaceX Crew-13, part of NASA's ongoing rotation of personnel to the orbiting laboratory.
The path to this moment has taken five years of intensive training, though the dream itself stretches back to childhood. Kutryk is a colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and a test pilot—credentials that prepared him for the technical demands ahead. He was selected as a Canadian Space Agency astronaut in 2017, a selection that opened the door to the preparation that now stands nearly complete. In an interview with CTV Your Morning on Tuesday, he reflected on the improbability of it all. "As a kid, I was fascinated with exploring, wanted to be an astronaut, but I didn't think it would be possible," he said. "I always viewed it as sort of just this almost unattainable goal, but it was still really good for me to have that goal. It definitely had a huge impact on my life, still does."
Once aboard the station, Kutryk will carry two broad sets of responsibilities. The first is operational: the International Space Station is, by his own assessment, probably the most complicated thing humanity has ever built. Keeping it running falls to the crew. He will maintain its systems, repair what breaks, operate its machinery, and control its functions—technical work that has consumed years of training. The second responsibility is scientific. Though Kutryk is not a scientist by training, the crew conducts research designed by researchers from around the world. Many of those projects are Canadian, planned specifically for his mission. The station functions as a unique floating laboratory where experiments can be conducted in microgravity in ways that are simply impossible on Earth.
For Kutryk, the mission carries significance beyond his own achievement. It represents another chapter in Canada's long involvement in space exploration, a continuation of the country's presence at the forefront of spaceflight. "A lot of Canadian pride," he said. "It's pretty neat that Canada's on this and that we're still there doing what we've always done so well, which is live right there in the forefront of space flight." He has acknowledged the role of luck and help from others in reaching this point, but the arc from childhood dream to launch readiness is unmistakably his own. In weeks, he will leave the ground and enter an environment where that childhood fascination becomes daily work.
Citazioni salienti
It feels really magical. I've been dreaming about this for a long time, a lifetime, training for it for about five years.— Joshua Kutryk, in an interview with CTV Your Morning
The space station is probably the most complicated thing humanity has ever built. My job is to keep it running and maintain it, fix things, operate it, control it.— Joshua Kutryk, describing his responsibilities aboard the ISS
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