Ms Bennell-Pegg to become 1st female to train as astronaut under Australian flag

Adelide, The Gulf Observer: Ms Bennell-Pegg, the Australian Space Agency’s director of space technology, will receive her training through the European Space Agency.

The training will provide the Adelaide resident with a basic training certification, which is required to be selected for a space mission.

Ms Bennell-Pegg said she had worked with some fantastic women over her career, but working with women in the space industry was rare.

“Less than 27 per cent of the Australian STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce are women,” she said.

Women are very much the minority globally.

Without diversity in our STEM workforce in all its forms, we can’t have the creativity we need to solve the problems of the future.

“I’m really excited to use this opportunity to hopefully elevate the conversation around women in STEM.”

Ms Bennell-Pegg said she had had a passion for space since childhood.

“I grew up on the northern beaches of Sydney, where the sky is incredibly clear with stars at night,” she said.

“I realised stars aren’t just pinpricks of light, but could actually be whole planets, or even be entire galaxies.

“As you do when you’re a child, you have a stubborn urge for adventure, and I was drawn to that adventure.”

However, due to a lack of female representation in the field, she had to forge her own path.

“There were no real role models for … Australian [female] astronauts at that point,” she said.

“When I was a kid, there was no space agency, let alone a path to being part of a space sector in Australia.

“I did aerobatic flying when my friends were learning to drive, I read every physics book I could find.

She hoped her new position would break new ground women hoping to work in the industry.

“This isn’t just for me, it’s for what it can do for the rest of Australia, and what it can do to inspire young people and particularly young women,” she said.

“While I’m named as the first to represent Australia, I hope I won’t be the last.

“I would love to do a spacewalk installing some scientific equipment, or maybe even one day the Moon, who knows?”

Ms Bennell-Pegg’s training will run until May 2024, but as for when she will be headed to space, she says that remains uncertain.

“Right now there is no flight opportunity foreseen, which is not unusual when an astronaut candidate undergoes basic training,” she said.

“At the end of that training, you are qualified to be tapped on the shoulder for an international space station mission and that will be up to Australia to decide.

“Usually when you are selected for a mission, it will be a couple of years of free-flight training again before you actually go up there.”