On a Monday in St. John's, Newfoundland, a room of schoolchildren and adults leaned toward a screen to speak with someone floating some 400 kilometres above them. Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, has been living aboard the International Space Station for more than a month as part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission, a six-month stay that asks him to find ordinary life in an extraordinary place. Speaking with the candour of someone who has made peace with the strangeness, he described the daily grind of sleep, hygiene, and bland liquid meals, yet said the experien
Canadian Astronaut Joshua Kutryk, Speaking From Orbit: 'I'm Having the Time of My Life'
It's like when you were a child and you dreamt of flying.
Mark
Why does a short video call from the station get so much attention?
Mimi
Because he answered the small, human questions. Sleeping, brushing teeth, eating. Kids ask those, and the answers make orbit feel real.
Mark
He called the food hard to enjoy. Is that a complaint?
Mimi
Not really. He said it took time to get used to, and then in the same breath said he's having the time of his life.
Luke
Worth noting that's his own account, delivered in an outreach event for schoolchildren. It's sincere as far as we can tell, but it's not an independent assessment of the mission.
Mark
He did two spacewalks. What do we know about them?
Mimi
Only that he left the station and did maintenance work on the structure. The report gives no dates or details of the tasks.
Luke
Right, so we can't say how long they lasted or what was repaired. That's simply not in the reporting.
Mark
And the timeline?
Mimi
Launch was Oct. 1 on SpaceX Crew-13, with about six months planned.
Luke
Planned and expected, yes. Those are forecasts, not guarantees, and nothing here suggests a change.
Mimi
His closing thought was about Earth, that seeing it makes you want to look after it better.
Il Polso
- Sleeping, brushing teeth, and eating liquid food in microgravity prove harder than the dream of flight suggested.
- A live link from orbit turned a St. John's science centre into a room full of questions and applause.
- Kutryk has already completed two spacewalks to maintain the station, adding weight to a mission still growing in demand.
- With roughly five months still ahead, the Crew-13 crew settles into its routine while watchers look for further spacewalks.
- Kutryk's view of Earth from 400 kilometres has left him wanting to care for the planet more.
On a Monday in St. John's, Newfoundland, a room of schoolchildren and adults leaned toward a screen to speak with someone floating some 400 kilometres above them. Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, has been living aboard the International Space Station for more than a month as part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission, a six-month stay that asks him to find ordinary life in an extraordinary place. Speaking with the candour of someone who has made peace with the strangeness, he described the daily grind of sleep, hygiene, and bland liquid meals, yet said the experience was a joy. It is one more small chapter in the long human effort to make a home beyond the Earth, and a reminder that the wonder of that effort is often shared most generously with the young.
On Monday, a science centre in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, filled with schoolchildren and adults, all gazing up at a live link to the International Space Station. Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, 44, from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, answered their questions and then did a backflip to show them what weightlessness looks like. The room applauded.
Kutryk did not pretend the work is easy. He and his crewmates launched on Oct. 1 aboard NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission and expect to stay in orbit for six months. He described the job as challenging and sometimes tedious, with sleep and tooth-brushing hard to manage without gravity, and food that is mostly liquid and hard to enjoy the way a meal on Earth can be. It has taken time to adjust.
Still, he said, the experience is a joy. Floating is like the childhood dream of flying, now made everyday. "I'm having the time of my life," he told the audience. He reads on his Kindle and rides an exercise bike in his spare time, and the station is fairly comfortable, though the treadmill requires strapping himself in.
He has completed two spacewalks to maintain the station. From outside, he said, Earth is a stunningly beautiful blue globe, and the sight left him wanting to take better care of it. With about five months still ahead, the crew's progress and any further spacewalks are the things to watch.
On Monday, a room at a science centre in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, filled with schoolchildren and adults, all of them looking up at a link to the International Space Station. On the other end was Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, who answered their questions and then did a backflip to show what weightlessness is like. The crowd in eastern Newfoundland applauded.
Kutryk, 44, is from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. He has been living aboard the station for more than a month. He and his crewmates launched on Oct. 1 as part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission, and they are expected to stay in orbit for six months.
He did not pretend the work is easy. The job is challenging, he said, and sometimes tedious. Sleeping and brushing teeth are both hard in space, and the food is mostly liquid. In many cases, he told the audience, you end up almost drinking it out of a bag, and it can be hard to get the same satisfaction from a meal that you would on Earth. It has taken him some time to get used to it.
Still, he said, the experience is a joy. Microgravity, in his telling, is like the childhood dream of flying, except that it is now his everyday life. "I'm having the time of my life," he said.
He told the mostly young audience that he prepared for the mission by learning to live and work with other people in extreme conditions, including underwater. The station itself, he said, is fairly comfortable. In his spare time he reads books on his Kindle or rides an exercise bike, much as he would at home. There is also a treadmill, which astronauts have to chain themselves to in order to use.
Kutryk has also carried out two spacewalks on this mission, leaving the station to perform maintenance work on the structure. While he worked, he said, Earth was a giant globe of blue spinning about 400 kilometres below.
That view left him with a thought he returned to when speaking about it. Earth from space, he said, is stunningly beautiful, and looking at it leaves you with a desire to take better care of it and look after it more.
With roughly five months of the planned stay still ahead, the things to watch are the progress of the Crew-13 mission and whether further spacewalks are scheduled. Monday's call, a live conversation with schoolchildren in Newfoundland, was part of the outreach that comes with the work.
Citazioni salienti
I'm having the time of my life.— Joshua Kutryk, Canadian astronaut
Earth from space is just so stunningly beautiful.— Joshua Kutryk, Canadian astronaut
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