MONTREAL - Space explorer Joshua Kutryk says he hopes Canadians will see his mission as a testament to what Canada can do when it leans into a bold vision and accepts taking some risks. “I am having a blast, but I hope people see the bigger picture,” said Kutryk speaking from aboard the International Space Station (ISS). “It is important for Canada to be here. We get a lot of benefits from these missions, and I hope that we can continue Canada’s strong legacy in space going forward.” Kutryk was flying over Vancouver when he began to describe the view from above during a twenty-minute-long press conference from space. “It makes you look at the world differently. It’s one world, one thing hanging in the blackness of space and you don’t see all the countries, all the problems, and all the challenges. You see this little bit of perfection that we should really be trying to protect,” he said. The Canadian astronaut arrived at the ISS on Oct. 1, for his maiden spaceflight, along with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov and NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney. He described the launch as “exhilarating, spectacular, powerful, violent.” In his first day on board, he began to experience the effects of microgravity on bone density and muscles, losing about 2.7 kilograms during his first week. He is taking part in a Canadian experiment called AstroFit focused on building strength in space. “It works on trying to assess astronaut health with wearable technology that I have on,” Kutryk described. “It is all designed with the long-term view of trying to get humans deeper in space for a longer period of time.” Kutryk also packed a 100-year-old pocket watch along for his ride of a lifetime. Kutryk said his great-grandfather brought the heirloom along from Ukraine to Canada in the early 1900’s. To the Canadian astronaut, it serves as a reminder of the passage of time. “It is remarkable for me to hold it and think about how much has changed in the last hundred years, and what that means for our future, for better or for worse, depending on the decisions we make,” he said. “Four generations old and it is sitting in one of the most highly technical things humans have ever created.” And there is more Canadian content en route to the ISS. A Space X Falcon 9 rocket launched new cargo weighing more than 2,700 kilograms including supplies to be used as part of Canadian experiments. The pre-dawn launch on Tuesday created a spectacular phenomenon called a Jellyfish effect, which forms as rocket exhaust interacts with sunlight. But it was the sight of the Northern Lights from an ISS window earlier in the mission that Kutryk described as one of the most amazing things he had ever seen. “To see the curvature of the earth embraced by this blanket of dancing fluorescent oranges, yellows and pinks was magical,” said Kutryk, who is from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. “For me it was amazing, I used to see them all the time growing up, but to see them from the other side is spectacular. It’s mind blowing.” And it is a view he shared with the international crew up above the earth, including some fellow astronauts who had never seen the Northern Lights before.
