Meet Canada’s two new astronaut recruits
The Canadian Press
General Aerospace Astronaut CSAJennifer Sidey and Joshua Kutryk will move to Houston this month to start a two-year training program.
The two astronaut candidates recruited in 2017. Left: Joshua Kutryk. Right: Jennifer Sidey. (Credit: CSA)
LONGUEUIL, Que. — After more than a year of searching, the Canadian Space Agency has named its newest astronauts.
On , during celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Joshua Kutryk and Jennifer Sidey as the two new recruits.
Kutryk and Sidey will also be getting a tour of the space agency near Montreal.
According to the CSA, Calgary’s Jennifer Sidey worked as a mechanical engineer, a combustion scientist and a lecturer at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. She holds an honours bachelor in mechanical engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Cambridge in the UK.
She dreamed of becoming an astronaut to advance the application of science for the benefit of society and to inspire young people to pursue their interests in science.
Fort Saskatchewan, AB’s Joshua Kutryk is an airforce pilot out of Cold Lake, Alberta. He holds a bachelor in mechanical engineering and a master in defence studies from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. He also received a master in space studies from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida and a master in flight test engineering from the United States Air Force’s Air University in Alabama.
According to the CSA, he wanted to become an astronaut because he has always been fascinated with space and believes that space exploration can help make the world a better place. Above all, he wants to help humanity broaden its collective horizon.
Sidey, who will be 29 in August, says her dreams of becoming an astronaut date back to 1992 when Roberta Bondar went into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
A biography posted on the space agency’s website says Kutryk, 35, was fascinated with space as a child and that he said he knew his life would focus on helping to explore it.
Sidey and Kutryk will move to Houston this month to start a two-year training program.
