First astronaut to wear Australian flag reveals secret to her success

Aussie astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg always knew what she wanted to be when she grew up and has shared the moment she knew she would one day reach for the stars.

Ms Bennell-Pegg was in Year 8 when the teacher told her class to write down their top three jobs. The future Australian of the Year only filled out the top line: Astronaut.

“What else is there? If you got to pick anything, right? If you could be capable of anything and do anything you want to, what would it be? That was it for me,” the 41-year-old said with a delighted grin.

“And instead of patronising* me or laughing, my school and my parents said, ‘Well, figure out what that would actually take’.”

Becoming an astronaut was not a common choice of career for teenagers growing up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches at the time. In fact, Australia did not have a space agency or even any pathway that was a ticket to an extraterrestrial* career.

But Ms Bennell-Pegg proved herself to be a remarkably determined teen.

“I learned that to be an astronaut, you need to have a first career,” she said. “You can’t just finish school and become an astronaut.

“You have to go be a scientist or an engineer or a pilot or a medical doctor.”

She said you also needed to have expeditionary* skills and operational skills, such as those learned from being in the military, to help you make decisions under pressure. Being fit and healthy also proved important, as did speaking a foreign language.

“If becoming an astronaut is a cherry on the top of a career, a life you enjoy anyway, it’s an add on,” she said about mapping out the road to becoming Australia’s first fully qualified, operational astronaut.

After finishing high school, Ms Bennell-Pegg studied a double degree in physics and space engineering. At night, she worked at the Steyne Hotel in Manly, managing to still find time to catch a few waves during the day.

Ms Bennell-Pegg also became an aerobatic pilot* in her spare time, volunteered with the State Emergency Service and joined the Army Reserve, all with an eye on turning herself into an ideal candidate for a space program.

“The best leadership training I’ve probably ever had was back then,” she said.

“I knew being an astronaut would be incredibly unlikely, but that was what I wanted to do first. I hoped to just be able to work on a space mission one day. So I went overseas.”

Two masters degrees in space engineering and space technology, work with Engineers Without Borders* in India and a stint with Airbus* working on space missions followed.

Along the way, she married Campbell Pegg, now director of space at the South Australian Space Industry Centre, with whom she shares daughters Clara, 10, and Hazel, eight.

They returned to Australia in 2019 for Ms Bennell-Pegg to join the newly opened Australian Space Agency, which sponsored her training with the European Space Agency in Germany as an astronaut. She was one of six chosen from 225,000 candidates.

On the first day, they were told the selection process had ensured they were up to the task, so only three things could see them fail: not putting in the effort, an incurable medical issue or failing to be part of the team.

The training involved survival skills in extreme temperatures, engineering, medical skills, space walks in deep pools of water and coping with zero gravity by being weightless inside a plane doing rollercoaster-style loops in the sky.

“It is basically like skydiving through the sky with a plane falling around you at the same acceleration* – you’re falling inside the plane and the plane is falling with you, you’re floating.

“It’s incredibly fun,” she said. “We had to learn how to use a drill up there. If you don’t hold on, you’ll spin too.”

Ms Bennell-Pegg has become the proud wearer of the first ever Australian flagged blue astronaut suit. She has also earned her silver astronaut wings and the badge of her training group, nicknamed the Hoppers.

“It’s like being in the Scouts and collecting all the badges,” she joked, making light of the fact that she is just one of 100 operation-ready astronauts in the world to own one of those jackets today.

French astronaut Sophie Adenot has become the first of her “Hoppers” training group to go into space and is currently aboard the International Space Station.

Ms Bennell-Pegg has been working hard to one day become the first Australian flagged astronaut in space. The two previous Australians, Andy Thomas and Paul Scully-Power, had the American flag of their adopted country on their suits.

“You have to prepare for many futures,” she said. “There’s no guarantee that I’ll ever get to space and I have to be okay with that, no matter how much effort I put in.

“So you don’t sacrifice anything you would regret. But equally, you don’t leave anything on the field in preparing for it, because should I have the chance to represent Australia in space, I want to do a damn good job.”

The 2026 Australian of the Year tells today’s stargazing young girls to “reframe your future not as what you want to be, but what you want to contribute. And that stops you comparing yourself to others and just helps you get on with delivering something that matters to you.”

POLL

GLOSSARY

• patronising: talking down to someone as if they are not smart or mature
• extraterrestrial: existing outside planet Earth
• expeditionary: being able to survive and operate in harsh, remote environments
• aerobatic pilot: pilots who can perform specialised manoeuvres like loops, rolls and inverted positions
• Engineers Without Borders: a not-for-profit group that uses humanitarian engineering to improve the quality of life in areas that are disadvantaged
• Airbus: a European aerospace company
• acceleration: speed

EXTRA READING
Space tradies and buck moon rise
NASA reveals plan for moon base
Astronauts journey to next frontier

QUICK QUIZ
1. What sort of factors made Katherine Bennell-Pegg’s dream of being an astronaut challenging to achieve?
2. What things do you think led to her success in mapping out a career path?
3. What brought Bennell-Pegg and her family back to Australia in 2019?
4. What sort of training has she had to do to become an astronaut?
5. Which impressive accolade did Bennell-Pegg receive this year?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Dream career timeline
It was in Year 8 that a high school teacher asked Katherine Bennell-Pegg about three future careers she would like to have. She only listed one.

What are three future careers you would like to have?

1.

2.

3.

Since then, all of Katherine’s education and life ambitions have been aimed toward getting to space.

What do you have to, or could you do, to help you achieve your dream job in the future?

Brainstorm five different courses/activities or educational pursuits you could aim for to achieve this career;

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–

–

–

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Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Katherine Bennell-Pegg’s advice to young women is:

“reframe your future not as what you want to be, but what you want to contribute. And that stops you comparing yourself to others and just helps you get on with delivering something that matters to you.”

What do you think Katherine means in this quote? How could it apply to you personally?

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine the full story turns out to be in three parts and this article is only Part One. Think about what the rest of the story could be and write the next two parts that tell the rest of this story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Critical and Creative Thinking