As Director of Space Technology at the Australian Space Agency, Katherine is a trailblazer in Australia’s emerging space industry and a big supporter of health and life sciences research in microgravity.
MTPConnect were lucky enough to have Katherine as a guest on the MTPConnect Podcast – as part of our MTPConnect SA’s Insights Series event “What’s Your Place in Space’, celebrating Australian Space Week in Adelaide!
For this special 200th podcast episode published in September 2025 – ‘Why Space Matters for Advancing Life Sciences Research’, Katherine explained how the work of astronauts is linked to health research in space.
“I think the health outcomes on earth have been advanced by putting humans in space, particularly on the International Space Station, which is a huge space station 109 meters across, is almost as big as a soccer field, and it’s been operating up there for more than 25 years with people on it that whole time different people, but people on it that whole time and basically, as astronauts, we study sciences, health sciences and life sciences and various forms of biology, because we’re scientists in the sky, or, probably more accurately, lab techs in the sky with the hands and the eyes of our country scientists on the ground up there.
“In fact, 70 to 80 per cent of an astronaut’s time in space is usually on microgravity sciences, of which health is a huge part. Plus, our bodies are medical guinea pigs in space, right because of how the body responds to the space environment, especially weightlessness or microgravity.”
When it comes to the opportunities for the Australian space industry and our life sciences sector to work more closely together to improve human health, Katherine had this to say:
“Australia does have some excellent discrete examples already of researchers using microgravity…but we don’t yet have a big central activity around it. Across the country, it’s more discrete research occurring and it’s a bit of a blind spot, to be honest, I think, for Australia. If people aren’t aware that microgravity is a laboratory in space, being the largest part, but there’s also facilities on ground, then we’re not making the use of it and taking all the opportunities. So I hope to make people aware of this as an opportunity for their research and their applications.”
It’s a great episode, and worth a listen, as Katherine and other fascinating guests, take us into Space to discover the benefits of microgravity for health and medical research and its real-world applications.
