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Speaker 1: Now we know that an Australian astronaut is in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory this week as part of a roadshow touring

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Speaker 1: remote schools across the top end, showcasing the wonderful world

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Speaker 1: of science, technology, engineering and maths to students. Catherine Bonelle Peg,

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Speaker 1: the first astronaut trained in Australia, joins me on the

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Speaker 1: line right now from Adelaide River School. As I understand it,

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Catherine.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, lovely to have you on the show. Firstly, tell

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Speaker 1: me a little bit about how you became an astronaut.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I say, for me, becoming an astronaut with a

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Speaker 2: childhood dream, I usedill love lying on the grass in

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Speaker 2: my backyard looking up at the stars. And when I

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Speaker 2: learned that when some of those stars are actually planets

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Speaker 2: that no one had ever been on before, you know

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Speaker 2: that childhood curiosity meant that I wanted to go explore

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Speaker 2: them the same way I like to climb every tree

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Speaker 2: and look onto every rock for bugs. And as I

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Speaker 2: grew up by filling in love with sos and exploring

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Speaker 2: the outdoors and becoming an astronaut just seemed like the

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Speaker 2: most wonderful adventure I could have with my life. So

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Speaker 2: I applied to study physics and engineering at UNI and

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Speaker 2: became a space engineer, which took me around the world

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Speaker 2: getting to build satellites and rockets and space stations and

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Speaker 2: come back to Australia to help the Australian Space Agency

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Speaker 2: build up Australian space capability. And then I finally applied

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Speaker 2: when the European Space Agency put out a call for

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Speaker 2: astronauts and went through a year and a half selection process.

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Speaker 2: It was just like the movies with lots of sports

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Speaker 2: tests and stress tests, and then I went through basic

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Speaker 2: astronaut training with European Space Agency and graduated from that

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Speaker 2: earlier this year, which means I haven't been to space yet,

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Speaker 2: but I'm mission ready, which has pinched me stuff.

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Speaker 1: How incredible it sounds amazing? What are the kids thinking

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Speaker 1: as they start to hear your story or what's their

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Speaker 1: reaction as they start to hear your story while you're

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Speaker 1: traveling around the top end.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's been really special and in very humbling experience.

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Speaker 2: Last night I was doing a talk in Darwin and

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Speaker 2: Now at our Adelaide River School and the kids are

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Speaker 2: just so excited for hearing about the wonders of space

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Speaker 2: and the adventures you can have there. In how you

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Speaker 2: know to be an astronaut, you it's more about efforts

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Speaker 2: than talent. You need to be a bit of an

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Speaker 2: all rounder and being someone that likes team activities like

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Speaker 2: sports and expeditions and learning other languages. That's all just

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Speaker 2: as important as your academics in becoming an astronaut. So

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Speaker 2: I'm hoping to show them that you don't have to

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Speaker 2: be a superhero or a genius to be an astronaut

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Speaker 2: or work in space. You just have to follow your

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Speaker 2: passion and back yourself in. It's to shoot and you've

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Speaker 2: got every chance. And yeah, they've just been amazing. That's

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Speaker 2: such a.

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Speaker 1: Great message because sometimes kids think, oh, I don't know

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Speaker 1: if I'm smart enough to do something like that.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's lots of kinds of smart right And you know,

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Speaker 2: for me, I figure that you can learn pretty much

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Speaker 2: anything given enough time and effort, and if you like something,

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Speaker 2: it's easier to learn it and you'll become good enough.

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Speaker 2: And when you're not the smartest person in the room,

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Speaker 2: you know, that's when you learn the most and you

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Speaker 2: might be able to contribute something unique and I'm always

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Speaker 2: surrounded by really smart people, and it's shown me there's

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Speaker 2: lots of different ways to contribute.

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Speaker 1: What a great message. I think that's such an incredible

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Speaker 1: thing for younger people to be hearing. Catherine, tell us

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Speaker 1: what are some like what's some of your fondest kind

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Speaker 1: of moments or memories that you have experienced since becoming

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Speaker 1: an astronaut.

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Speaker 2: Oh, you know, astronaut training is incredible. Astronauts today have

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Speaker 2: to do so many different jobs in space. Were scientists

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Speaker 2: in the sky with the hands, the eyes of ears

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Speaker 2: of scientists on the ground from our country. We help

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Speaker 2: to be science communicators to the use in our nations.

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Speaker 2: We have to be space treaties because there's no you know,

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Speaker 2: gym space station. You have to fix everything up there yourself.

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Speaker 2: We had to learn to their medical procedures on each

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Speaker 2: other and ourselves. We got to learn to do space

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Speaker 2: walks that was pretty special, doing scuba diving in deep

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Speaker 2: pools in mock missions with all the tools. We got

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Speaker 2: to go in vomit commets like zero G planes where

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Speaker 2: you'd float inside, and we had to learn to do

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Speaker 2: you know, CPR in zero G which involves actually doing

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Speaker 2: a handstand on the person and doing squats on the

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Speaker 2: roof to do CPR and real learnt to use a

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Speaker 2: drill because if you don't hold on, you'll spin as

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Speaker 2: well as the drill in zero G. I really loved

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Speaker 2: the survival training, so we did ocean survival and Winter survival,

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Speaker 2: which built on my time in the Australian Army Reserves

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Speaker 2: and State Emergency Services and surf life savings. All of

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Speaker 2: those skills are really helpful, but it was so special.

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Speaker 2: I remember in Winter survival, I was out in the

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Speaker 2: snow and I didn't know what time it is. We

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Speaker 2: weren't allowed watchers were by ourselves and I could see,

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Speaker 2: you know, the beautiful bright sky above me when I

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Speaker 2: stuck my head out of the under the taft and

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Speaker 2: the snow cave in middll of the night. And then

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Speaker 2: I could see the space station going overhead and that

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Speaker 2: was that was special and reminded me of when I

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Speaker 2: was a kid staring up the stuff.

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Speaker 1: How incredibly awesome, Catherine, Which other schools are you heading

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Speaker 1: to to speak over the coming days?

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Speaker 2: Oh and we're heading to so many schools across you know,

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Speaker 2: adlad River and Bachelor and down to Catherine, And yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm so excited to get out to all of them.

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Speaker 2: They'll also be public free talks, and there'll be one

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Speaker 2: tonight in Bachelor and one tomorrow and Katherine and I'm

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Speaker 2: looking forward to meeting so many people and hearing from

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Speaker 2: them as well as sharing my stories and yeah, hopefully

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Speaker 2: one day I get to wave down from space at

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Speaker 2: this beautiful area as well. Well.

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Speaker 1: Catherine Banell Pig, it is lovely to speak to you

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Speaker 1: this morning. Thank you so much for your time, and

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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy your time in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Oh, thanks for having me. I'm sure I'll be back.

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Speaker 2: There's lots of good space activities happening up in this

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Speaker 2: territory and lots of good jobs for people too, so

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Speaker 2: I'll be back.

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Speaker 1: Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Thanks so much for having a chat

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Speaker 1: with us this morning, Catherine,