The human experience is infused with curiosity about the cosmos. Each of us questions our origins, the vastness of space, and what might be ‘out there’. When we act on our curiosity and begin to explore, we enrich our spirit, stoke our imagination, and go about our daily lives with a far more optimistic perspective.

Yet, so little and so infrequently do we make concerted effort to do this! We are so busy with the day-to-day; so caught up the short-term fixations of a comfortably successful (yet perhaps slightly confused) modern Australian society. How brilliant would it be to re-acquaint ourselves with the innate drive to get out there, to seek new knowledge, to achieve through challenge; to rekindle this potent motivational energy which leads us to innovate, improve and fix things?

Finally, in a rare and enormously encouraging moment, someone decided to take these sentiments to the national stage. Illuminated by the lights of the National Arboretum in Canberra, astronaut and 2026 Australian of the Year recipient Katherine Bennell-Pegg opened her acceptance speech with these words:

“As a kid, I used to lie on the dry grass in my back yard and gaze up at the stars in awe. That imperative to look to the sky and wonder – to innovate and explore – is an ancient one […] looking up has always been a part of who we are.”

Katherine’s choice to entwine her childhood stargazing with her vigorous pursuit of a career in science and tech is a very deliberate one. The message lends weight to an emerging axiom of modern times: that space exploration is a catalyst for human achievement.

To catalyse is to provide ideal conditions for something to occur; to instigate and to accelerate activity. For Katherine, it was the call to explore the stars which ignited her childhood drive, ultimately leading her to excel within the space technologies sector, and then even further to master the rigorous demands of the role of astronaut. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the theme of her opening words elegantly invokes her professional title:

astro∙naut; star sailor.

For us, the Australian collective, pursuing space exploration on a national scale catalyses achievement in cutting-edge services, technologies and capabilities which directly improve our lives on Earth. To sample again from Katherine’s speech,

“Space is not about escaping the Earth, but about helping us see it more clearly.”

If we are to wisely manage our world so that all life might thrive into the distant future, then we must monitor the health and extent of our forests and grasslands, effectively guide our agricultural machinery and plan our crops, follow and predict great weather systems and the dynamics of entire oceans, accurately track fires and floods, and connect and coordinate human activity across vast distances. Space technology augments our capability in every regard, elevating our awareness and our actions to the planetary scale.

All the while, our robotic probes, orbiters, landers, rovers, and observatories venture further into the cosmos, to return knowledge of new worlds and images of great cosmic vistas. Curiosity drives space exploration; space exploration catalyses human achievement. Katherine Bennell-Pegg’s story is a prime example of this phenomenon at the individual level.

Again, it truly is a wonderful and refreshing thing to hear all this expressed by an Aussie astronaut, and from such an elevated public platform. May these ideas serve to inspire and lead us to good places.

Featured image: astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg accepts the Australian of the Year award for 2026. Credit: NADC / Salty Dingo.