ESA reportedly offers space mission for Katherine Bennell-Pegg

A public and industry-led campaign had also been launched to implore the Australian government to partner with the ESA in sending Bennell-Pegg on the space mission.

“Australia should fly Katherine; not simply because Katherine is an exceptional Australian, though she really is. Australia should fly Katherine because Australia will be better for having sent her,” according to a recent public comment from Space Industry Association of Australia chair and Max Q Strategy principal Darin Lovett.

“The Australian Federal Government is weeks away from a decision on whether Australia is going to take up the opportunity before us, a once in a generational opportunity – for our nation to send its first Australian flagged astronaut to space.

“The case for the mission is much bigger than simply sending an Australian astronaut into space. Australia needs to build a more sophisticated economy. I’ve used a pretty simple description of the Australian economy for years. We are very good at rocks and crops (we also used to export education but that’s another discussion). Mining and agriculture have made Australia extraordinarily wealthy. But they cannot be the whole answer for the next 50 years.

“Our investment in research and development is well below the OECD average, and our productivity performance is not improving. We need to think seriously about the industries we want to build and the work we want Australians to be doing in the future.

“Research I co-authored into why students choose particular careers found that young people need to be able to see themselves doing that work. Visible role models are especially important for girls, who remain seriously under-represented in STEM. Katherine is an engineer and the first person to qualify as an astronaut under the Australian flag. She can help make science and engineering feel real and achievable to young Australians.

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“But inspiration alone is not enough. This should be an Australian science and technology mission, with Australian experiments and technologies on board. It should help our companies and universities gain flight heritage, commercialise intellectual property and build stronger connections with the European Space Agency and international supply chains.

“A mission gives Australian researchers and companies something concrete to work towards: defined requirements, a deadline and an opportunity to prove their technology in space.

“Government is right to ask what the mission will cost and what Australia will receive in return. It should also consider what we will miss if the opportunity passes: the research, the industrial capability, the international partnerships and the chance to show young Australians that science and space are things this country does – not things we watch other countries do.”

“She’s a great Australian and I think that all Australians are inspired by a great South Australian, indeed our Australian of the Year,” PM Albanese said during an Adelaide radio interview on 13 May about the space flight.

“I think people will get behind it (and) I know there’s some private philanthropy behind it as well.

“What we’re doing as a government through our science minister, but also through foreign affairs, is having a word and more than a word; we are lobbying hard with the Europeans, which would be what it is a part of. And when Ursula von der Leyen was here, the head of the European Union, I certainly lobbied her hard to make sure that we can deliver a good outcome there.

“I want to see a positive outcome. But it’s something as well that had a very large price tag attached to it, and in a difficult budget it being solely Commonwealth-funded was something that would have presented a real challenge. But we’re working on it with the Europeans as well.”

Australian aerospace and defence firm Nova Systems earlier this year pledged $1 million to support efforts to send Bennell-Pegg to the International Space Station.