Katherine Bennell-Pegg

Katherine Bennell-Pegg
Bennell-Pegg in 2025
Born
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Education
OccupationBureaucrat
EmployerAustralian Space Agency
Space career
RankGroup captain (reserve), Royal Australian Air Force
Selection

Katherine Bennell-Pegg is an Australian astronaut. As of 2025 she is director of space technology at the Australian Space Agency. In 2024, she became the first qualified astronaut under the Australian flag as well as the first female Australian to be trained as an astronaut. She is a dual Australian and British citizen.

Early life and education

Katherine Bennell-Pegg was born in Sydney and grew up in the Northern Beaches area.[1][2]

She completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), Aeronautical & Space Engineering, and a Bachelor of Advanced Science majoring in physics at the University of Sydney.[3]

Upon completion of her double-degrees, Bennell-Pegg received an Erasmus Mundus full scholarship to study in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands as part of the Joint European Master in Space Science and Technology programme.[4] Under this program, she completed a Masters of Science in Astronautics and Space Engineering at Cranfield University (1st prize shared) and a Masters of Science in Space Technology at Luleå University of Technology.

During her university education, Bennell-Pegg also completed the Space Studies Program at the International Space University, alongside two internships. These included working as a thermal engineer at the European Space Agency, and at NASA Ames designing a low-cost spacecraft development platform.

Bennell-Pegg also served in the Australian Army Reserve, for which she was awarded the Sword of Honour and the Sir Thomas Blamey Memorial Award.[5]

Career

Airbus

Bennell-Pegg's first job after her MScs was as a mission systems engineer at Airbus UK, working on a range of future missions and concept studies, including Martian in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU), future remote sensing missions and space debris removal. She also worked as a thermal architect on the LISA Pathfinder team during the thermal test campaign.

She was transferred to Airbus Defence and Space Germany in 2016, where she worked as a project manager and systems engineer of advanced robotic projects, as well as being the service operations lead for the Bartolomeo International Space Station Platform.

Australian Space Agency

Bennell-Pegg moved back to Australia to support the growing local space sector and started her position as the assistant manager of space capability and robotics & automation at the Australian Space Agency based in Adelaide, South Australia. In 2022 she was promoted to the role of director of space technology.[6]

Australian astronaut candidate

As a British dual citizen, Bennell-Pegg applied to join the European Astronaut Corps in early 2021.[7] She was one of the 25 finalists for the 2022 ESA Astronaut Group, but was not selected as part of the 17-person crew.[8] However, the Australian Space Agency sponsored her training with the European Space Agency (ESA), announcing in March 2023 that she would train alongside the mission crew at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC).[7] This marked the first time ESA provided basic training to an astronaut candidate from an international partner, making the EAC the third centre in the world to do so.[9] Bennell-Pegg became the first person to train as an astronaut under the Australian flag, marking a significant achievement for the country's representation in human spaceflight. Previous Australian-born astronauts, Paul Scully-Power and Andy Thomas, flew to space as US citizens representing NASA.[1] UK-born Australian citizen Meganne Christian was also selected as a member of the 2022 ESA astronaut reserve, representing the UK Space Agency.[10] Bennell-Pegg completed the ESA Basic Training curriculum and graduated with her ESA classmates from "The Hoppers" group on 22 April 2024 as a fully qualified astronaut.[11][12]

Royal Australian Air Force

On 5 December 2024, Bennell-Pegg was appointed as a reservist Group Captain in the Royal Australian Air Force in the role of a specialist capability officer in the Air Force Reserve. Her duties include instructing and informing colleagues about human performance optimisation, space capabilities and technologies, and how to build the necessary resilience for a resourceful, ready and inclusive workforce.[13]

Other activities

In 2022, Bennell-Pegg delivered The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering Innovation Lecture.[5]

Recognition and awards

In 2020, Bennell-Pegg was selected as a member fellow of The Karman Project, a global one-year program for leaders in the space industry.[14]

In March 2023, she was named as the overall winner in addition to the winner of the Leader of the Year category at the Woman of the Year Awards in Adelaide.[15]

In November 2025, she was selected as South Australia's Australian of the Year.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b "Adelaide woman to become first female to train as astronaut under Australian flag". ABC News. 8 March 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  2. ^ Strahan, Nicole [@10NewsFirstMelb] (8 March 2023). "Katherine Bennell-Pegg reaches for the stars" (Tweet). Retrieved 9 March 2023 – via Twitter. Sydney-born scientist Katherine Bennell-Pegg could soon be rocketing to the stars...
  3. ^ "G'day space: Australia is "go" for launch". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  4. ^ "SpaceMaster News". Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  5. ^ a b "G'day space: Australia is "go" for launch". News & Opinion. The University of Sydney. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Katherine Bennell-Pegg". Australian Space Agency. Archived from the original on 14 June 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Australian astronaut candidate to receive basic training with ESA". European Space Agency. 8 March 2023. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  8. ^ "History made: Australian woman Katherine Bennell-Pegg to be trained as an astronaut by European Space Agency". Department of Industry, Science and Resources. 8 March 2023. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  9. ^ "Katherine Bennell-Pegg". www.esa.int. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  10. ^ "Meganne Christian". www.esa.int. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  11. ^ "The Hoppers". www.esa.int. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  12. ^ "ESA's astronaut class of 2022 graduate". www.esa.int. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  13. ^ "Down to Earth asset for Air Force". Defence Australia. 20 December 2024. Retrieved 15 November 2025.
  14. ^ "Karman Fellows". The Karman Project. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  15. ^ Polymeneas, Evangeline (7 March 2023). "Out of this world: South Australia's best recognised in Woman of the Year Awards". The Advertiser. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 9 March 2023. The sky was not the limit for the winner of the OCPSE Leader of the Year and overall winner, Katherine Bennell Pegg, who dreamt of being sent to space...
  16. ^ Keane, Daniel (15 November 2025). "Astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg named SA's Australian of the Year". ABC News. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
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