Australia’s first-ever astronaut candidate grew up on the Northern Beaches. Katherine Bennell-Pegg spoke to editor Michelle Giglio from her base in Germany about space-walking, moon missions and star gazing as a child on the Peninsula.
Katherine Bennell-Pegg is scoring a lot of firsts. First Australian astronaut candidate – or AsCan, as known in the space world. First Australian woman to train with an international space agency. And hopefully the first Northern Beaches local to fly in space.
Katherine is five months into her astronaut training at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Germany, and by May next year, she will be fully qualified and ready for a mission on the International Space Station (ISS) and beyond.
While other Australian-born citizens such as Andy Thomas and Paul Scully-Power have flown to space, they had to become citizens of the United States of America (USA). For many years, Australians have not had the option of training locally to reach for the stars. But the establishment of the Australian Space Agency (ASA) in Adelaide has allowed talented individuals the opportunity to gain the experience necessary to get to the next level.
It’s a dream which Katherine, 38, has been working towards since she was ‘just a kid’ looking up at the stars from her backyard in South Curl Curl.
Katherine describes her upbringing on the Northern Beaches as ‘perfect’. “I always really loved sports and the outdoors and the beach,” she says. “As a kid that’s curious about science, the best place to be is outside in nature because there’s so much to discover.”
As a child, Katherine spent a lot of time roaming the local parks and beaches with her two younger sisters, doing nippers at North Curl Curl and rep basketball at Manly Warringah. And one year she got a ‘simple’ telescope for Christmas which sparked something in her. At first, she would just look at the moon. But as she grew older, she learnt to look at the planets.
“Once you realise stars are not just pretty sparkles of light, but can be planets, other worlds, suns or even entire galaxies…it makes your sense of the universe all of a sudden expand.
“And when you know that there are other worlds you can walk on potentially, it’s pretty exciting as a kid. You have an innate sense of curiosity in seeking an adventure, and I wanted to be the one that would explore those new worlds when I was very young.”
So when Katherine wrote down ‘astronaut’ as her career choice in high school at Queenwood School for Girls in Mosman – and nothing else – her parents did not brush it off, but asked her how she was going to achieve this goal. Far from being overwhelmed, Katherine was motivated to explore.
Image credit: ESA – Ph. Sebirot
Images credit: ESA
Katherine training in Germany with other candidates.
Clara, Campbell, Hazel, Katherine. Image credit: Chelsea Scott Photos
Katherine (middle) with sisters and dad at Fairlight rockpool in the 1990s.
“It encouraged me more, because I learnt that you can do almost any kind of a STEM-based career (science, technology, engineering, maths) and be an astronaut. You can be a pilot, an engineer, almost any kind of scientist, or a doctor.
“It’s one of the kinds of dreams a kid can have where the backup is an awesome career in its own right.”
To maximise her chances, Katherine started aerobatic flying in Bankstown, as being a pilot was one pathway to a space career. She immersed herself in all things ‘physics’ and remembers watching one of the MIR Space Station’s final passes from the Governor Phillip Lookout on Beacon Hill.
After school, the mother-of-two went on to complete a double degree in aeronautical engineering and advanced physics at the University of Sydney, and then left the Northern Beaches for Europe to complete a double masters.
“Growing up, I knew that there was no Australian astronaut program and no mature satellite development industry in Australia,” she explains. “I wanted to help develop space missions, and I just didn’t see a path to doing that in Australia. I certainly didn’t see a path to being an astronaut, because everyone that had flown to that point had been American.”
Katherine thought she would never return to work in Australia, until the Australian Space Agency opened in 2018. Katherine became a director of space technology, in charge of access to space, which means working on things like spaceports to launch rockets.
After several years gaining valuable insight and training into space work, she thought her best chance to become an astronaut was through the ESA, as she had dual British citizenship. After a 12-year gap in recruitment, ESA candidate applications opened in 2021, with more than 22,500 people from across Europe putting up their hand for one of five permanent and 12 reserve positions.
After six selection rounds over more than a year -which involved several trips overseas -Katherine got down to the final 25 applicants in 2022, but missed out. While disappointed, Katherine was told she had actually had done exceptionally well, but was not selected due to her limited ties with Europe.
And then in February, she got the most amazing call. The ESA decided that she was such a fantastic applicant that they would accept her as an Australian candidate.
“It was incredible,” Katherine said of the news. “It was ‘pinch me’ stuff.” Two weeks later, she was on a plane to Germany, leaving behind her young daughters Hazel and Clara, and husband Campbell (who is also a space engineer). Campbell stoically quit his job, packed up the house and brought the children over a month later.
Since April, Katherine has been undertaking the gruelling routine of astronaut training. Given her workload has now gone ‘next level,’ Katherine says Campbell has ‘massively stepped up’ to support the family. Her day starts with a 50-minute cycle to the ESA – fitness is crucial for astronauts as in space, the human body deteriorates without ongoing exercise. Then there’s basic medical training, and a lot of ‘ology’ subjects like microbiology and radiation biology. Finally, performing a key function of astronauts, which is laboratory work processing science experiments.
“Astronauts are operators and installers of scientific experiments in space,” Katherine explains. “There’s some incredible medical research (on the ISS) into things like cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and osteoporosis, because in microgravity, your body and cells behave quite differently.”
Right now, Katherine is learning how to space walk, which is done by scuba diving in a deep pool around mocked-up parts of the ISS. This helps the astronauts-in-training to understand what it actually feels like to move in space.
“You’re out in space installing things or repairing things and it’s really tough to do physically and mentally. (But) it’s something that every astronaut really wants the chance to be able to do.”
And there is a lot of ‘cool stuff’ to come in training, Katherine says, going in a centrifuge, where she will spin at high speed to learn how to deal with rapid acceleration in a space ship – the G Force. There will also be time in a hyperbaric chamber to deal with possible depressurisation in space. Possibly only an AsCan would consider these types of physical exertions as ‘cool’.
At the end of training, at least one of the newly qualified astronauts will already be selected for their first mission, but most will have to wait years, Katherine says. A career astronaut’s first mission is usually six months at the ISS.
What is her ultimate goal? “I would obviously love to do a space walk on the moon or around the ISS – open that hatch and step out into space,” she says.
“That would be awesome. It feels like you are exploring. It goes back to that adventure-draw that you have as a kid.
“But as I grew up, it moved from just that desire for adventure and curiosity, to hoping to contribute through all the scientific benefits that spaceflight can bring back (to Earth). So if I could be part of an Australian experiment that creates a medical breakthrough for those back home, that would be fabulous.”
Astronauts will soon be heading back to the moon, as the US has been working on the Artemis missions, which will land a woman on the surface for the first time in the next few years, and build a permanent base from which to launch an expedition to Mars. This could see Katherine one day do a moon walk, should the Australian Government decide to send an astronaut as part of the Artemis group of nations.
Australia has an emerging space industry, Katherine says, but the benefits of space research are huge and underpin our society. “It’s a place where you can make scientific discoveries or provide services to society,” she explains.
Katherine lists satellites and space technology as crucial for all aspects of our lives: bank transactions, predicting the weather, tracking pollution for climate change research and refugee movements for providing humanitarian aid. “Without investments in space, society wouldn’t be what it is at all. It would be massively cut off at its knees because that infrastructure is so important.
“It also unlocks the ability to develop new critical technologies and science that our nation and the world relies on to progress.
“I hope that through the training I can show Australia that an astronaut program is something that’s worthwhile. It’s not a luxury.”
Image credit: Brad Griffin Photography
Once she gets to space, Katherine is most looking forward to looking back at the Earth and looking up at the stars at the same time.
(On the ISS) you’re only about 400km up. You can very clearly see the environment, cities and changes that are occurring. I’d love to take a photo of the Northern Beaches from space. That would be great to look back down at home (where) I was a kid looking up. To be able to be looking down at other kids that are maybe doing the same, would be fantastic.”
Is there anything which terrifies her about being in space? “There are certainly parts of it that are risky, but you get so well trained in everything.” For Katherine, it is not personal danger which she worries about.
“Having a young family, and being away from them for six months in space, there’s a bigger fear that something would happen on earth when I was in space and I couldn’t help.”
When I spoke to Katherine, she had just received her ESA training suit, which displays an Australian patch on the sleeve-another first. “That was a super proud moment. (It made) me think back to being that kid on the Northern Beaches. What would I think (then) if I knew where I would be now?” Katherine reflects that she really is ‘just at the start’ of achieving her goal.
“In a way it’s not the end of achieving that dream, it’s the start of it. There’s a long journey ahead to become a confident astronaut and hopefully fly one day.”
Ultimately, she hopes to create opportunities for other Australians with the same goal as her. “To be able to say to kids, ‘as an Australian you can be involved in human spaceflight, you can be an astronaut. This is something you can dream to do.’ And by me having trained as an astronaut, I hope that this opens the door for them.”
Katherine will be doing a free online chat on 15 August as part of Science Week. To book a ticket, go to Trybooking and search ‘astronaut’.