Artemis II expedition<\/a>, humanity\u2019s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and a successful push toward a landing projected in two years\u2019 time. <\/p>\nMillions of people watched that journey \u2014 some Edmonton students even took to writing astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian and non-American to participate in a moon mission. <\/p>\n
Grade 4 and 5 students from Greenview School tracked the Artemis II journey and came up with scientific questions to ask their idols, like, \u201cHow many backflips did you do while in space?\u201d<\/p>\n
The CSA told teacher Chantel Usher that Hansen would \u201cabsolutely\u201d receive the letters from her students. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they found out that they had a voice and they were going to use it, they took it and ran with it,\u201d she told CTV News Edmonton. \u201cThey researched everything they could. They made their own space board games. They really latched onto this idea that it\u2019s bringing Canada together.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kutryk says the kids\u2019 dreams aren\u2019t far from what his own were. <\/p>\n
\u201cI always considered (space exploration) something that I was very unlikely to do, and I even feel that a bit today sitting here a couple months from launch,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that takes a lot of work and a lot of dreaming and a lot of dedication, but it also takes a lot of luck.\u201d <\/p>\n
But what his six-year-old self had in common with anyone now working in the CSA, he said, was a passion for space followed through with an \u201cenormous energy\u201d and patience to put in the work. The nature of exploration, he added, is still evolving. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I see is opportunity. Space is that metaphor where we call it the next new ocean \u2026 it\u2019s just this amazing wealth of opportunity for countries that are positioned to go out and get it, and Canada certainly is right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kutryk launches no earlier than mid-September from Florida with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. <\/p>\n
With files from CTV News Edmonton\u2019s Miriam Valdes-Carletti<\/p>\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta-born astronaut Joshua Kutryk will be part of NASA’s upcoming SpaceX Crew-13 mission. CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[712,49,48,66],"class_list":["post-645305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/RND47DQ7XIYAIWYMGWMFGDNNF4.jpg\")
Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk is shown at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida on Monday March 30, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Kelly Malone Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk is shown at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on Monday, March 30, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Kelly Malone \u2018Amazing wealth of opportunity\u2019<\/p>\n