Canadian Space Agency unveils four new studies for International Space Station

MONTREAL — Four Canadian-designed studies are set to be conducted aboard the International Space Station, soon to be hosting Albertan astronaut Joshua Kutryk.

The studies announced Tuesday during a Canadian Space Agency technical briefing will look at four space-related issues that also could provide valuable insight for people living on Earth. The studies will examine such things as astronauts’ mental health and how their bodies adapt to microgravity and cope with space anemia — a decrease in red blood cells.

Kutryk, 43, of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., took part in the briefing as he awaits his turn on the International Space Station in a “time not too distant from now.”

“There’s two reasons that I’m training to go to the space station,” Kutryk said. “The first is to do all the operations and maintenance there, of course, but the second one … is to do the science.”

Kutryk is preparing for what is expected to be a six- to eight-month stay aboard the space station, but the launch date has not been scheduled yet. He is set to travel to the station aboard Boeing’s Starliner-1 in what will be the spacecraft’s first mission.

The International Space Station is celebrating a milestone on Nov. 2, marking 25 years of continuous human presence aboard the structure about 400 kilometres above the Earth.

Researchers at the Canadian Space Agency briefing said there is urgency to get the studies going quickly.

“You want to go as fast as you can because the ISS won’t be there forever and there’s already an end date of December 2030,” said Dr. Guy Trudel, principal investigator of the anemia experiment, which is being jointly conducted by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa.

“So if you want to recruit enough astronauts for your results to be meaningful, we have to work very diligently,” Trudel said. “After the ISS is retired from space, there’ll be very few opportunities for any of this kind of science to be done.”

Dr. Santiago Costantino of the Université de Montréal will lead a team looking at vision changes experienced by astronauts during long missions.

It was a condition discovered about 15 years ago, not because it didn’t exist before, but because the technology to understand what was happening became available around that time, Costantino said. The current project is the second phase of this research, making progress on ways of fighting it.

“This is clearly a huge problem if we’re thinking about manned missions to places like Mars that take about three years to go back and forth,” Costantino said. At home, the results could help better understand the effects of pressure and prolonged bed rest on eyes.

Dr. Jelena Brcic of the University of the Fraser Valley is behind an experiment that looks at how astronauts manage stress, find meaning in their work and lives, and their overall well-being. The study will use various methods to gather data about astronauts’ mental health before, during and after a mission.

The knowledge can be used to measure the experiences of those taking part in similar environments on Earth, which she described as high-stakes, remote or confined professions such as the military, search and rescue operations, remote health-care workers or wildfire first responders.

“We have to solve certain scientific inquiries to be able to enable our space exploration,” Kutryk said.

“But in solving them, we’re actually discovering things that make life so much better for people here on Earth.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2025.