{"id":821120,"date":"2026-05-25T13:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/821120\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T13:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:31:18","slug":"australias-first-astronaut-katherine-bennell-pegg-invited-to-international-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/821120\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s first astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg invited to International Space Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s first qualified astronaut is closer to her first space flight than ever before, but the trip is not a guarantee.<\/p>\n

The European Space Agency has extended the offer to the Australian government for Katherine Bennell-Pegg to join a future mission that will take the 41-year-old to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

But the offer remains dependent on financial support, with crowdfunding, industry support and government all expected to play a critical role.<\/p>\n

Touring Western Australia’s Goldfields as part of her commitments as Australian of the Year, Ms Bennell-Pegg said she was happy to inspire the next generation and keen to follow through.<\/p>\n

“I hope that through representing Australia, I can unlock the opportunity for Australia to be part of human space flight, to be able to put payloads in space, to do research up there,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Katherine Bennell-Pegg with Goldfields Baptist College students Frederik de Bruin and Jasmyn Mullin during her visit to Kalgoorlie-Boulder. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n

“It’s been a privilege to help foster that and help them to dream big for themselves and know that future is in reach from right here.”<\/p>\n

Critical opportunity for Australia<\/p>\n

Astrophysicist and director of the University of Western Australia’s International Space Centre Danail Obreschkow said while the costs would be significant, the mission represented a crucial opportunity for Australia.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know which space mission, we don’t know the volume of the offer, but typically such partnerships can be in the range of a hundred million dollar investment,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Through such a space mission, you join a worldwide economy \u2026 that global space economy which is worth a trillion dollars this year.<\/p>\n

\"Astrophysicist<\/p>\n

Danail Obreschkow says the mission represents a huge opportunity for Australian science and research. (ABC News: Andrew Williams)<\/p>\n

“Put it all in the bucket, you get this huge return on investment factors \u2026 people working in space, new jobs.”<\/p>\n

Professor Obreschkow said private funding could be leveraged, but it was a “reasonable” thing for public money to be allocated to support the mission.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Federal Science Minister Tim Ayres paid tribute to Ms Bennell-Pegg as an “extraordinary Australian”, but stopped short of guaranteeing support.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Katherine Bennell-Pegg was named Australian of the Year for 2026, and is the first astronaut to qualify under Australia’s space program. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n

“Discussions with the ESA about potential Australian participation in a human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station are ongoing,” they said.<\/p>\n

Inspiring the next generation<\/p>\n

In Kalgoorlie-Boulder, year 12 student Michaela Jean Stanton has dreamed of becoming an astronaut, and relished the chance to meet one of her heroes.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a dream of mine since I was little, and I’m still following it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Very nerve-wracking, but it was exciting to meet an astronaut \u2026 and I know it will inspire a lot of other kids to do it as well.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Katherine Bennell-Pegg meeting high school students in Kalgoorlie, including Michaela Jean Stanton, pictured right. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n

The outreach program organised by Auspire and the Australian Space Agency aims to encourage more students to pursue STEM, and for Ms Stanton, whose favourite subject is history, it worked.<\/p>\n

Ms Stanton said when she got back to school, she would double down on her studies in STEM.<\/p>\n

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Mayor Glenn Wilson said seeing an Australian astronaut was a big moment for him personally.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Glenn Wilson says he found Katherine Bennell-Pegg’s visit personally inspiring. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n

“I’ve got a five-year-old at home who has ambitions to be an astronaut,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Today I get to take that opportunity home to him to say, mate, that’s an opportunity that you have. We have astronauts here in Australia.”<\/p>\n

Ms Bennell-Pegg said regions like the Goldfields were vital for future space exploration for their skilled trades and experience in developing harsh environments.<\/p>\n

“I’m here with Auspire as part of a tour as Australian of the Year and it’s an absolute privilege to be here and get to meet the community,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Kalgoorlie is incredible. I’ve got out to a local primary school and the School of Mines and now here at a civic reception, and I can tell you that the future of space is being written here in regional WA.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s first qualified astronaut is closer to her first space flight than ever before, but the trip is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":821121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,337595,337596,337597,577,337598,182498,50,26358,26365,8632,337594],"class_list":["post-821120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-australia-international-space-station","tag-australian-of-the-year-2026","tag-goldfields-news","tag-iss","tag-kalgoorlie-news","tag-katherine-bennell-pegg","tag-news","tag-science-education","tag-stem","tag-wa-news","tag-who-is-australias-first-austronaut"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116635468198157612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}