2026 SA Australian of the Year Katherine Bennell-Pegg

Australian Community Media

Katherine graduated from Basic Astronaut Training in 2024 as part of a class of six trained by the European Astronaut Centre in Germany – the first international candidate to do so. She was initially chosen for the program from a field of over 22,500 applicants.

Transcript

00:00When astronauts go to space, we experience something called the overview effect, which

00:06is where you look into the light, that thin blue line of air that bends around the horizon.

00:10Within it, all life as we know it has evolved. And we're overwhelmed by how fragile the world

00:16really is. And we return to Earth compelled to protect it, to understand it, to nurture it,

00:23and know that we, all of us, have our part to play in it. I'm honoured to be able to do my

00:28bit as the first astronaut to represent Australia. For me, working in space has been a lifelong

00:35passion. It started out with that desire to be part of new science. And then it was about

00:40helping us understand our planet and our environment. Now as an astronaut, I can see that it's even

00:46bigger than that. Astronauts go to space to be the hands and the eyes of their country's

00:51researchers and industry. You do research into every kind of field you can imagine, from

00:57all the fundamental sciences, into new medicines, new materials, new solutions for the energy

01:02transition, and to help us move our society forward and look after each other.

01:08I remember when I wanted to be an astronaut, Australia didn't even have a space agency,

01:13let alone a pathway to being an astronaut. I realised I had to go overseas to pursue a space

01:18career. I couldn't see a pathway to do what I wanted to do in Australia, unfortunately.

01:23So I went overseas and lived around the world and worked on some of the most compelling missions

01:28I could have ever hoped for. Travelling around the world and doing this work has been an immense

01:32privilege because I got to learn things I could bring back to Australia to help grow our Australian

01:36space sector. I've seen the power of space to ignite a spark in young people's minds. Space

01:43is powerful to draw kids through to STEM fields when they then look around and maybe they do something

01:48else and that's okay. Because we need people to keep engaged with STEM so we can have a STEM

01:53literate society and so that we have people empowered with the knowledge that they can

01:58solve big problems, that they can make discoveries that are important. For many, many years I was the

02:04only woman in the room and when you're young in particular and you feel like you don't fit the

02:10stereotype, you often are underestimated and you underestimate yourself. For that reason we see so many young women

02:16backing out of STEM fields when in fact they have so much to offer because they bring a unique

02:22perspective. What I want to do is to show people the power of a dream when you put in the effort to

02:27make it happen. So I encourage people to back themselves in hard things, in technical pursuits for

02:35the love of ideas because you want to solve a problem, because it's a challenge and then imagine

02:41what we can do with that courage to aspire.

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