The federal government has sent an offer to the European Space Agency (ESA) to send the Australian of the Year, astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg, to the International Space Station.
The mission, slated for ۲۰۲۸, will mark the first time a qualified astronaut has flown to space under the Australian flag.
The ESA offer for Bennell-Pegg to join a future ISS mission garnered support from philanthropists and the Australian space industry, but has previously described by the office of the science minister, Tim Ayres, as “a very expensive undertaking” which no government alone could fund.
Announcing the decision on Friday, Ayres said:“The government has been engaging extensively with the private sector, philanthropists, and other levels of government to raise funding to support a space flight – which is a significant cost.
“We are grateful to the philanthropists who have committed over $۶m in cash, plus in-kind support, and some indicative support from some state governments.”
Bennell-Pegg is director of space technology at the Australian Space Agency (ASA) and completed astronaut training with the ESA in ۲۰۲۴.
She is not the first Australian astronaut, but she is the first to qualify under the Australian flag. Dr Andy Thomas and Paul Scully-Power, both Australian-born, went to space as US citizens on Nasa missions. Elaine Hyde, a dual Australian and US citizen, last year took a suborbital flight aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin NS-۳۰.
In May, the ASA announced it had entered into “treaty-level discussions” with the ESA, which “would establish a formal framework for enhanced cooperation between Australia and Europe”.
In August, Ayres and the assistant science minister, Andrew Charlton, wrote to state and territory leaders asking them to “partner” with the federal government to fund the mission. The letter, according to The Australian, described it as a “complete Australian mission that includes locally developed experiments and technology”.
South Australia, where the ASA is headquartered, has publicly committed to supporting Bennell-Pegg’s space bid.
“South Australia stands ready to partner with the commonwealth in what should be a national endeavour,” the premier, Peter Malinauskus, said. “Katherine Bennell-Pegg has the potential to inspire a new generation to dream big and address the single biggest challenge to our economy which is productivity.
“Australia has a massive shortage of young people taking up the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths, and we need more of it if we’re going to grow the nation’s productivity … Nothing would motivate young people more to take up these fields of endeavour than seeing Australia’s first ever flagged astronaut in space.”
A campaign to secure Bennell-Pegg’s spaceflight mission was supported by entrepreneurs Dick Smith and Jim Whalley – who had each pledged $۱m funding for the mission – and former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who said on social media that the “project makes long-term economic sense for Australia beyond the usual sensibilities of the Treasury bean counters”.
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Richard de Grijs, a professor of physics and astronomy at Macquarie University, said of Bennell-Pegg: “She is qualified, she has undergone significant training, so she is set to go up if a suitable mission can be found.
“The government has actually contributed quite a lot of money to that education already,” he said. The ASA paid $۴۶۶,۰۰۰ for Bennell-Pegg to complete her astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.
“There is an inspirational value in sending a citizen from your country to space who is also the Australian of the Year … but the question is, is that worth $۱۰۰m?” De Grijs said.
“It’s a lot of money, but on the other hand, it might actually lead to returns that are way more than the estimated number.”
De Grijs pointed out that Australia was also involved in “inspirational spaceflight” by another means: an Australian-built lunar rover, named Roo-ver, will be sent to moon on a Nasa mission in ۲۰۳۰.
Darin Lovett, chair of the Space Industry Association of Australia, said the industry had “a strong track record of return on investment”.
“For around $۱۰۰m, less than the price of a single coffee for every Australian adult, this is not a ticket to space. It is a down payment on Australia’s future in one of the defining industries of this century.”
In a speech Bennell-Pegg delivered earlier this month, she described space as “a gateway – a lure – into the full breadth of STEM fields. Especially for those that dream of going up there.”
