MERRITT ISLAND -- Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk’s first thought after being told he had made it to space on Thursday was a measure of disbelief.
“I don’t really believe it yet,” Kutryk said, after being told the crew was in orbit, about 10 minutes after it blasted off from Florida as part of the NASA SpaceX Crew 13 mission to the International Space Station.
“It does feel weird though.”
The 44-year-old is a mission specialist on the four-person crew, which includes commander Jessica Watkins and pilot Luke Delaney, from NASA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, another mission specialist.
He thanked his colleagues and friends, and his family.
“NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the Royal Canadian Air Force -- thank you for everything you’ve done to get us here,” he said. “It’s the start of what will hopefully be a long, a safe, and an impactful mission. To my family. Heather, Peter and Anna, I miss you and to everyone else, thank you for the support. It is time for crew 13 to go to work.”
Before the launch, Kutryk said the crew members felt like “some of the luckiest people on earth.”
In a pre-recorded message posted on social media Wednesday he said: “It’s with great pride and humility that I will represent Canada on this mission.”
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 watched 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.
“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.
