MERRITT ISLAND -- Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk is on his way to space. The 44-year-old is one of the four members of the NASA SpaceX Crew 13 mission that blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday for the International Space Station. The crew will spend six months at the station conducting experiments, doing research and taking part in critical maintenance work. The space station is a long way from the cattle farm where Kutryk grew up in eastern Alberta, but Kutryk has said the mission will fulfil a lifelong dream. Industry Minister Melanie Joly was set to watch the launch from the ground -- the first space launch she has ever attended. Joly said Wednesday it’s not lost on her that Kutryk will be travelling with a Russian and two Americans -- NASA’s Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. “It’s happening at a time where there is this trade war going on, there is geopolitical tensions,” Joly said at nearby Cocoa Beach. “I think it’s important that we are able to show that we can co-operate as human beings on space exploration.” Joly has been on the front lines of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, first as foreign minister and now in her current portfolio, where she’s tasked with mitigating many of the tariffs’ effects. Space exploration remains an area of ongoing co-operation, Joly said. She is scheduled to meet with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman while in Florida for the launch. Noting essential Canadian robotics contributions to the facility, such as the well-known Canadarm and its followup Dextre, Joly said the International Space Station is a symbol of how countries can and must work together. The tensions between Canada and the United States came up during NASA’s prelaunch news conference on Wednesday. Mathieu Caron, director of astronauts, life sciences and space medicine at the Canadian Space Agency, was asked whether some of the rhetoric directed at Canada was a distraction. Caron responded that in his three-decade-long career working on the International Space Station project, the focus has always been on the safety of the crew and the success of the mission. “That commitment was true 27 years ago and it’s still true to this day,” he said. “So I’m happy to report that we’re happy to continue to work with our partners.” That doesn’t mean Canada isn’t looking to diversify its space partnerships along with its economy, Joly said. She said NASA is changing its operating model and Canada “has to take stock of that” and reach out to other nations for partnerships and innovation. That means working more closely with the European and Japanese space industries, as well as other middle-power countries. “We believe that space is important for Canada and is important for us as an industrial power, as a country that needs that sovereign capability of space launch,” she said, pointing to Spaceport Nova Scotia, a new commercial orbital launch site. Joly said Canada’s defence industrial plan recognizes the importance of the space sector and new funds have been dedicated to the Canadian Space Agency. She said Canada needs to embrace the industrial part of space investment to create domestic jobs while also doubling down on science and civilian research. A new Canadian Space Agency president will be named in the coming weeks, Joly said. A new space strategy will be unveiled in the coming months, which will promote Canada’s goals of creating opportunities, playing a larger role in the sector and sending more astronauts off Earth, she added. Joly said she’s very excited to watch Kutryk’s launch to space and called him a great representative for Canada: humble, intelligent and dedicated to the mission. Kutryk will also be dealing with a unique situation during his months-long deployment off Earth -- his wife is set to give birth to their third child. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2026. By Kelly Geraldine Malone
