Kutryk set to become fourth man to father child while in orbit
A SpaceX Crew Dragon lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station and sending NASA’s Jessica Watkins into orbit as the first Black woman to lead a crew there.
Watkins, a geologist who worked on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity a decade ago, is making her second trip to the orbiting laboratory following a lengthy stay in 2022. She will command the roughly six-month mission alongside NASA’s Luke Delaney, a retired Marine; Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Russia’s Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner. Delaney, Kutryk and Teteryatnikov are flying for the first time.
“We feel like some of the luckiest people in the world,” Kutryk said ahead of the launch.
The mission was delayed three weeks to fix a leaking fuel system in the Dragon capsule. Thick clouds threatened all morning to halt the countdown but ultimately cleared enough to allow for a safe liftoff. The eight-hour transit to the station will be the quickest yet for SpaceX.
“Thanks for an amazing ride,” Watkins radioed after reaching orbit.
The mission, designated Crew-13, is the 13th crew launched by SpaceX for NASA, not counting 2020’s test flight. The crew embraced the designation, which pays homage in their mission patch to Apollo 13, the harrowing 1970 lunar mission that ended with the astronauts’ safe return.
“We really wanted to honor their legacy, honor their resilience and their grit, and bring a little bit of that with us,” Watkins said. She and her crewmates rode to the pad in black Teslas bearing plates that read “Lucky 13.”
The crew will replace four astronauts who have been living at the orbiting laboratory since February.
Among the newcomers is Kutryk, who is on track to become the fourth man to become a father while orbiting Earth. His wife, Heather, is due to give birth to their third child in late November. The Canadian Space Agency has promised support for the family when the birth comes.
“A lot of life-changing things can happen over six months,” NASA manager Dana Weigel said on the eve of liftoff, noting that the space agency would do its best to keep Kutryk connected to his family.
NASA has previously helped astronauts in similar circumstances. In 2004, the agency provided a radio link between space station astronaut Mike Fincke and his wife’s delivery room during the birth of their daughter. Five years later, Randy Bresnik — now commander of next year’s Artemis III mission — dialed in to his wife’s hospital from orbit.
The happy news traveled more slowly for Austrian astronaut Franz Viehböck. His daughter was born a few hours after he launched to the Soviet Union’s Mir space station in 1991. He was not informed until the next day.