Katherine Bennell-Pegg, the first professional astronaut to represent Australia, is on a new mission – to help open doors to space and STEM
Engineering creates order from chaos. It’s the how to science’s why. It also makes the impossible, possible. And it’s taken me on extraordinary adventures.
Being a space engineer was more incredible than I’d ever imagined. It took me all over the world. I got to work on some of the most compelling missions and technologies I could have hoped for, like missions to other planets, the capsule that took people back around the Moon as part of Artemis II, and missions to help understand our oceans and atmosphere. I was able to learn from some of the best in the world.
Then, five years ago, I got my chance to apply to be an astronaut. It’s ‘pinch-me’ stuff to now be qualified for missions to the space station – even the Moon!
If I may have another dream, it’s this: that we bring Australia’s classic ‘give-it-a-go’ attitude to STEM fields. If a 13-year-old girl says she wants to be an aerospace engineer, I want the response to be not “Are you sure?” but “Yeah, that makes sense”.
For those of you who want to be astronauts, it’s said that the first person to walk on Mars is in a classroom somewhere today. Perhaps it’s an Australian classroom. Perhaps it’s your classroom. Perhaps it’s you.
But even if it’s not you, I wish you a dream to enjoy. And when you find a dream worthy enough, pursue it without hesitation. If you don’t fit the stereotype, know you add extra value. If you are underestimated, delight in proving them wrong.
You can be at the forefront of discovery, solving our grandest challenges. You can capture opportunities. You can create them. You can make what was once impossible, possible. You can write your own story.
This article first appeared in Careers with STEM: Engineering 2026.
