After a year of rigorous training, a 39-year-old engineer and mum of two has become the first person to qualify as an astronaut under the Australian flag.
Katherine Bennell-Pegg grew up on Sydney's northern beaches with her feet in the ocean and her head in the stars. Her childhood dream was to become an astronaut. Now the engineer and mum of two has made that dream a reality, becoming the first astronaut to graduate under the Australian flag. "When I grew up in Australia we didn't have a space agency, let alone a human space flight program," she told AAP.
"You just feel this crushing force ... you can imagine yourself in a rocket, on the capsule coming back and you know you can handle that and its effects. "I was pretty dizzy afterwards - I may have walked into a pole." Now that she has graduated with her basic training certification, Ms Bennell-Pegg is qualified for missions to the International Space Station, although there are no space missions planned for her yet.
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