Australia announces the birth of the country's first female astronaut

Palermo, the director of the Australian Space Agency, said that after months of careful selection, Meganne Christian stood out from more than 22,500 eligible applicants and is now an Australian first-ever female astronaut (part of the European Space Agency).

She is joined by 10 reserve astronauts, plus five career astronauts and a co-astronaut. As a reserve astronaut, Meghanna will keep her day job, but will also conduct ESA consulting and astronaut training, and will undergo annual medical and health checks.

According to public information, Christian is a materials scientist and atmospheric physicist. He received a doctorate in hydrogen research in 2014. He is an Anglo-Australian-Italian member of the European Space Agency's astronaut team in 2022. His parents are New Zealanders with four nationalities, fluent in English, Italian, French, and Japanese is currently a materials scientist at the National Research Council (CNR) in Bologna, Italy, and was an atmospheric physicist at Concordia Station in Antarctica.

Among other things, she is the founder and CEO of a UK start-up company dedicated to developing technology for humanity and is an active singer with multiple choirs and a black belt in Aikido.

There are not many Australian astronauts. Oceanographer Paul Scully-Power is the first Australian to enter space, and Andy Thomas, who was born in Adelaide, has participated in the National Aeronautics and Astronautics of the United States four times. NASA space mission also spent 141 days on the Russian Mir space station (Mir).