A View Few Will Ever See: Kutryk Reflects On Spacewalk

Looking down at Earth from outside the International Space Station is something very few people will ever experience, and on October 29, Canadian astronaut Colonel Joshua Kutryk became one of them.

Kutryk made history as the fifth Canadian astronaut to perform a spacewalk and the first in seven years, spending seven hours and 11 minutes outside the orbiting station alongside NASA astronaut Anil Menon.

Speaking during a live interview from the International Space Station the following morning, Kutryk struggled to put the experience into words.

“Yesterday was a wonderful experience,” Kutryk said. “To be on the end of Space Station, looking down, watching the world whirl by as a globe – it’s hard to put into words. I feel very lucky to have seen it.”

But there was little time to simply take in the view. The two astronauts had a demanding job to complete, installing and deploying a new solar array to help provide electricity for the station.

The spacewalk began at 5:57 a.m. Mountain Time and ended at 1:08 p.m., with NASA confirming that the astronauts successfully completed their work. By the following day, the newly installed solar array was already generating electricity.

The installation was the seventh of eight new solar arrays being added to the station. Once the final array is in place, the upgrades are expected to increase its power-generating capacity by up to 30 per cent.

Although Kutryk and Menon were the two astronauts working outside, they had plenty of help. Canada’s Canadarm2 robotic arm played a key role in positioning the equipment, while Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons communicated with the spacewalkers from Mission Control in Houston.

Kutryk acknowledged the many people involved in making the spacewalk possible, including the teams working behind the scenes on Earth and his fellow astronauts aboard the station.

The experience also carried special meaning for Canada. Kutryk joins Chris Hadfield, Steve MacLean, Dave Williams and David Saint-Jacques as the only Canadians to have performed spacewalks. Saint-Jacques was the last Canadian to venture outside the station, in April 2019.

For Kutryk, who grew up in the Myrnam and Beauvallon area, the experience marked another remarkable milestone in a journey that has taken him from rural Alberta to approximately 400 kilometres above Earth.

“It is an honour to represent Canada and demonstrate our country’s capabilities in space. Seeing Earth from outside the Station is unlike any other experience I have ever had, and I am looking forward to continuing this adventure,” Kutryk said in a statement released by the Canadian Space Agency.

And that adventure is far from over. Kutryk and Menon are scheduled to head outside the station again on November 5 to install the eighth and final solar array.

For now, Kutryk has returned safely inside the station with a successful first spacewalk behind him and a view of Earth he will likely never forget. - Photo credit: NASA/CSA -