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 2028, 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.
The likely cost to send Bennell-Pegg to space is an estimated $100m. Announcing the decision on Friday, a spokesperson for Ayres said: “The government has long held ambition to see an Australian astronaut go to space wearing an Australian flag on their space suit. We are grateful to the philanthropists who have committed over $6m in cash, plus in-kind support, and some indicative support from some state governments.
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-30.
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. 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 $466,000 for Bennell-Pegg to complete her astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.
Darin Lovett, chair of the Space Industry Association of Australia, said the industry had “a strong track record of return on investment”. It is a down payment on Australia’s future in one of the defining industries of this century.” In a speech Bennell-Pegg delivered last Tuesday, she described space as “a gateway – a lure – into the full breadth of STEM fields. Especially for those that dream of going up there.”
Extract — continue reading at the source.
