Space News Oct 3, 2026: Kutryk Settles In & Mars Tests
Happy Saturday, space fans, and welcome to your daily space update from Alberta Radio! Alberta-born astronaut Joshua Kutryk is settling into life aboard the International Space Station, Europe is rehearsing for Mars in a Spanish desert, Google's AI satellite checked in from orbit, and ESA's Juice got a big gravity slingshot toward Jupiter. There's also a shot at aurora tonight. Let's get into it.
1. Kutryk Settles In as Crew-12 Prepares to Come Home
Eleven people are living aboard the International Space Station after SpaceX's Crew-13 Dragon Grace docked Oct. 1. Among them is Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, who was born in Fort Saskatchewan and raised on a cattle farm in eastern Alberta. NASA called the flight a record for U.S. spacecraft: 7 hours and 55 minutes from launch to docking.
Today the Crew-13 astronauts are unpacking their Dragon, moving safety gear aboard and reviewing emergency roles. On Sunday, Oct. 4, Crew-12 commander Jessica Meir hands station command to cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov at a change-of-command ceremony starting at 8:20 a.m. MT, streamed on NASA's live channel. Crew-12 — Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA's Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — could undock as early as Monday, Oct. 5, weather permitting off the California coast.
Kutryk's first flight lasts about six months. He will test a new physical-training protocol and take part in Canadian experiments on mental health, bone density, cardiorespiratory health, orientation, anemia and ocular rigidity. Shortly after hatch opening he told the station crew: "There's something profound about being trusted with the responsibility to operate this station." Looking ahead, SpaceX's 35th cargo resupply is targeted no earlier than Oct. 13 and will deliver the final ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays.
2. Europe's Mars Rover Prototype 'Charlie' Trains in Spain
In Spain's Tabernas desert in Almería, the European Space Agency and Airbus wrapped field tests of Charlie, a prototype for the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover. Engineers spent about two weeks on dusty, rocky and salt-crusted ground that ESA says closely matches the geology they expect on Mars. Mission control for the tests sat in Turin, Italy, about 1,645 kilometres away, so operators could practice remote driving.
Charlie will not fly to Mars. Rosalind Franklin, sharing the same wheels, mast and base design, is planned to launch in 2028 and land in early 2030. Once there it will drill about two metres underground and analyse samples in search of past or present life, protected from surface radiation. ExoMars is Europe's first rover mission to the Martian surface. On firm but uneven ground in Almería, Charlie moved extremely slowly — more than an hour to cover a metre — while testing autonomous navigation.
Source: EL PAÍS
3. Google's Project Suncatcher AI Satellite Checks In From Orbit
Google confirmed contact with its Project Suncatcher prototype satellite after it launched Oct. 1 aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Built with Planet, the pathfinder carries tensor processing units — Google chips used for machine learning — to measure how they handle launch stress, space radiation and heat in low Earth orbit.
Google calls it a long-term research moonshot on whether space could one day host scalable ML infrastructure, not an operational orbital data center. A peer-reviewed paper on the research is available in the journal Joule. Transporter-18 lofted 130 payloads in total, including Starfish Space's Otter servicing satellite and Cowboy Space's Reason-1 power-beaming demo.
Sources: Google Research Blog | Space.com
4. ESA's Juice Gets a Gravity Slingshot Toward Jupiter
On Sept. 28, ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer skimmed just 8,640 kilometres above the Indian Ocean at 5:45 a.m. MT, using Earth's gravity to bend its path by 20 degrees and gain 3.5 kilometres per second. Operators needed only one tiny course nudge in the four weeks before closest approach. The flyby also let Juice calibrate science instruments and fly through Earth's magnetotail while China's Smile mission watched near-Earth aurora.
Next up for Juice is a final Earth flyby in January 2029, then arrival at Jupiter in 2031 for dozens of flybys of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. ESA has released navigation-camera views of Earth, Africa and the Moon from the encounter, with science-camera images expected in the coming weeks.
Source: ESA
5. Aurora Watch: Odds Improve for Alberta Saturday Night
Skywatchers, take note! NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center forecasts unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions through the weekend. Predicted Ap indices run about 15 on Oct. 3, 20 on Oct. 4 and 15 on Oct. 5. The Kp index peaks near 4.67 between about 9 p.m. and midnight MT Saturday night (Oct. 3–4), with a 35% chance of a minor (G1) storm on Oct. 4.
That is stronger than Friday night's quiet stretch and worth a look from northern Alberta under dark, clear skies away from city lights. Southern Alberta may only see a low glow on the northern horizon if a substorm kicks in. Space weather changes fast, so check NOAA before you head out.
Source: NOAA SWPC 3-Day Forecast
That's your daily space update from Alberta Radio! Keep an eye on the northern sky tonight, and we'll catch you tomorrow with more news from the final frontier.
