Katherine Bennell-Pegg became the first Australian Astronaut (under the Australian flag), when she graduated from the European Space Agency's 13-month Astronaut Basic Training in April 2024 as a professionally qualified astronaut and member of 'The Hoppers' class, following her successfully passing the 2022 ESA astronaut selection process. This also makes her the first Australian woman to have qualified as an astronaut. Previously, Katherine was Director of Space Technology at the Australian Space Agency, where she contributed to growing Australia's space capability through being technical lead on scoping the Moon to Mars Trailblazer "Roo-ver" lunar mission, developing plans to capitalise on Australia’s space and technology strengths, and managing the Access to Space team (including satellite, infrastructure and launch capability uplift activities). Katherine's career as a space systems engineer spans near to 15 years in space agencies and industry developing space programs and strategies, technologies, and missions (all phases and covering robotics, human spaceflight, in-situ resource utilisation, robotic space debris removal, earth observation, exploration, microgravity payloads and science) across six countries (including those in Europe, UK, US and Australia). These include the Orion vehicle that is taking humans back to the Moon, space station facilities, earth observation and science missions and robotic satellite capture technologies. Katherine holds four degrees across science (physics major), space and aeronautical engineering. Katherine is passionate about using human spaceflight and space to unlock opportunities for researchers and industry, grow Australia's STEM workforce, and help raise the level of aspiration amongst the next generation.