‘How does space smell?’ Halifax students connect with Canadian astronaut aboard ISS

High school students in Halifax enjoyed the rare opportunity to chat with Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, direct from the International Space Station.

Kutryk, a former CF-18 fighter pilot, is serving as a mission specialist during a six-month mission, as part of NASA’s four-person Crew 13.

On Friday, students at École Secondaire du Sommet had the chance to quickly connect with the crew.

“I thought it was amazing to have an opportunity like this to talk to an astronaut. It’s not something I thought I’d ever see in my lifetime,” said student Marie Gooding.

The school had a small window of time to chat: just 10 minutes as the station whizzed overhead at 25 times the speed of sound.

“I think the most interesting answer would be the reply to how does space smell and from what I remember, he said it smelled like iron or metal, which is very interesting, I hadn’t expected that,” said Gooding.

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“It has pushed me really to go into the sciences and now it makes me want to be like a doctor. So while I might not be going into the space domain, it does make me want to learn a lot more about how space works and the planets that surround us in our universe.”

2:06 Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk does 1st spacewalk

The ARISS, or Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, program is run internationally by volunteers and lets students speak directly with astronauts in orbit using ham radio.

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The program aims to inspire students to explore science, technology, engineering and math through hands-on radio projects.

“Science is not just in their classroom, it’s not just what they learn out of a textbook, it’s really bigger than that. So to see if they can start making connections between what they learned and what they see outside in the real world,” said science teacher, Karen Scarcella.

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For students, the chance to connect with a real-life astronaut was eye-opening.

“This inspires me to enter in like a space agency of some kind but not actually going into space, maybe working like a scientist at NASA or something similar,” said student Christopher Succar.