Australia’s engagement with the European Space Agency<\/a> and the potential benefits for the nation’s scientists and engineers.<\/p>\n“I’m excited not just for me, but for what it could do for our scientists, our engineers, and our future workforce,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But right now, my focus is on the ground. Most of an astronaut’s career is on the ground, training and preparing for space.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7916cf04d1779205330f029af4e55029.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Aspiring astronaut Alice had stars in her eyes when she met Australia’s first female astronaut. (ABC News: Luke Pike)<\/p>\n
Economic impact of reaching for the stars<\/p>\n
Chris Picton, SA minister for defence and space industries, said space was pivotal to the state’s economy across several sectors.<\/p>\n
“Whether that’s defence industries, whether that’s agriculture which relies on space, but of course telecommunications as well,” Mr Picton said.<\/p>\n
“Space is becoming more important, and we want to be at the forefront of that here in South Australia. Having the Space Agency [and] having some of these key companies here in our state really give us the leading edge.”<\/p>\n
The head of the Australian Space Agency, Enrico Palermo, said space was critical to the nation’s economy, defence, and understanding of navigation and weather systems.<\/p>\n
“Today is a chance for young and old to engage with space, understand that criticality but also be inspired at a time when we really need to boost the number of students entering higher degree mathematics and physics,” Mr Palermo said.<\/p>\n
“South Australia is one of the leading growth states in terms of our space economy in Australia.<\/p>\n
“In recent years, we’ve seen more than $75 million underpinned by investments by the National Reconstruction Fund.”<\/p>\n
He said the state had deep roots in the space sector, including Australia’s first flights to space from the Woomera test range.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the importance of Lot Fourteen-based businesses, including satellite telecommunications company Myriota, and Southern Launch, which operates the Koonibba Test Range.<\/p>\n
“That initial crucible of space startups started here in South Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/392e18c2e2c47cb2cd169cab7081ebcf.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Enrico Palermo says space is critical to the nation’s economy, defence, and understanding of navigation and weather systems. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)<\/p>\n
Close encounters of the aspirational kind<\/p>\n
Mc Bennell-Pegg said one of the most common misconceptions about space was that it was a “nice to have”.<\/p>\n
“Whereas it’s actually a ‘need to have,'” she said.<\/p>\n
“Space underpins our modern economy, our daily life, the breadth of science, and also prepares for our future by exciting young people about their futures in STEM.”<\/p>\n
She knows the power of a meet-and-greet all too well. During childhood, meeting her idols made space feel within reach.<\/p>\n
“Becoming an astronaut was a childhood dream,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I remember growing up and having the chance to meet Paul Scully-Power and Andy Thomas<\/a>, two Australians that have been to space but representing other nations.<\/p>\n“It was really impactful for me to see that they’re just real people that had worked hard towards a dream and managed to get there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Space Agency kicked off Australian Space Week on Sunday with a new event aimed at inspiring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3443,44827,64,63,261439,385171,113241,385172,385173,112791,4935,131,326,128,285,1974],"class_list":["post-810068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-adelaide","tag-astronaut","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-space","tag-day-out","tag-katherine-bennell-pegg","tag-lot-14","tag-lot-fourteen","tag-lunar-rover","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-outer-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n