In case you missed it, pop singer Katy Perry was one of six people launched into space on Monday, April 14, 2025, via Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The all-female crew went to space for 11 minutes aboard the fully automated New Shepard rocket, “Blue Origin’s fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for human flight.” According to its website, the experience included several minutes of weightlessness and “life-changing views of Earth,” marking a new chapter in space tourism.
But when it comes to Canadian-led human space missions, there are several that deserve our attention – including the longest Canadian astronaut mission to date, and what will be the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972.
What is Blue Origin?
Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos’ project to “radically reduce the cost of access to space.” According to its website, the development is all about “harnessing materials found in space to enable future exploration.”
“We envision a future where millions of people will live and work in space with a single-minded purpose: to restore and sustain Earth, our blue origin,” reads the website.
This is the 11th time the New Shepard system has completed human spaceflight, translating to 58 people being flown to space.
The star-studded astronaut crew included Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez.
Canadians in space
According to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the last Canadian space mission was led by astronaut David Saint-Jacques, who boarded the Soyuz Spacecraft to complete Expedition 58/59.
The mission was to fly to the International Space Station (ISS), with a successful landing back on Earth at 10:47 p.m. on June 24, 2019. At 204 days in space, this marks the longest Canadian astronaut mission to date, according to the CSA.
The next Canadian astronauts to journey to space are Joshua Kutryk and Jeremy Hansen, who have missions scheduled for sometime in 2025 and April 2026, respectively.
The next Canadian mission in space
A former CF-18 fighter pilot, Alberta-born Kutryk was first recruited by the CSA in 2017, officially becoming an astronaut in 2020. He was then appointed to the NASA Astronaut Office in Houston, Texas, where he began his work with the Starliner team.
Starliner-1 will mark the first mission by a CSA astronaut under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
The CSA states that the mission of Kutryk’s Starliner-1 mission is to successfully land Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spaceship to the ISS, launching “no earlier than the beginning of 2025” atop a rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The plan is for Kutryk to spend approximately six months onboard the Station to “conduct scientific experiments and test new technologies,” according to the mission page.
“Canadians from all backgrounds will have special access to this mission. Joshua Kutryk is particularly interested in inspiring young people and sparking their interest in space, science, technology, engineering and mathematics by offering them an extraordinary glimpse into the greatest moments of his mission,” says the CSA.
The first Canadian to go around the Moon
A year from now, CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen is set to make history as the first Canadian to go on a mission around the Moon. The historic mission will continue the Artemis campaign of creating a “durable lunar presence,” paving the way for human exploration of Mars.
Hansen officially became an astronaut in 2011, first working at the Mission Control Centre as capcom – “the voice between the ground and the International Space Station.” In 2017, he became the first Canadian to lead a NASA astronaut class, training candidates from both Canada and the U.S.
In 2023, he was assigned to Artemis II, the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972.
“We will fire this engine to accelerate to 39 times the speed of sound and head out to the Moon,” says Hansen in a trajectory video. “We’ll pass about 15,000 km beyond the far side of the Moon. When we do that, we’ll lose contact with Earth, then we’ll come back out again and set our sights on coming home.”
The mission will take place in a campervan-sized capsule called Orion over approximately 10 days.
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