Gaining insights from a star astronaut
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Science recently had the privilege of hosting retired astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.
During her time at Te Herenga Waka, Heidemarie engaged with staff and students, offering valuable insights into her experiences as an astronaut. Her visit was capped off with an evening talk where she shared anecdotes from her two space shuttle missions, and highlighted the diverse pathways people can take to achieve their career goals. Given Heidemarie’s visit coincided with the 150th anniversary of United States–New Zealand science relations, Deputy Chief of Mission David Gehrenbeck (from the United States Embassy) welcomed attendees to the event with a reflection on Aotearoa New Zealand’s connection to the American space industry.
Heidemarie’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion with space industry experts from across Aotearoa—Dr Jessica Dallas from the New Zealand Space Agency, Julia Rothman from Rocket Lab (both alumni of the University), Randy Pollock from the Robinson Research Institute, and Jude Rushmere from Nova Systems. The panel gave a comprehensive overview of the sector, emphasising the rapid growth of the industry in New Zealand over the past decade, and the promising prospects for the future.
Given this growth, panellists were quick to highlight the growth in job opportunities in the sector. Jude drew attention to the increasing demand for regulatory advice and safety assessments in light of the growing number of launches, while Julia touched on the balance of technical and non-technical staff within the space sector, noting that it takes a diverse group of skills (from technical to finance, to legal, to HR, to security) to contribute to the success of the industry as a whole.
Among the attendees was PhD candidate Faun Watson, President of the New Zealand Students' Space Association, who appreciated the opportunity for Space Science students to engage directly with Heidemarie.
“She gave a lot of good insight into the interpersonal skills and the soft skills that astronauts, and the team surrounding them, were expected to show and showed implicitly. She also had incredible technical recall; she was naming girders individually. Everything she said was really valuable and inspiring.”
Faun also attended the panel event and was excited to see the high level of engagement with the audience, and the great questions submitted.
“As one of questions said, it was really cool to see that three of the five panellists were women. That was a great thing to see for New Zealand space industry, especially knowing that engineering and physics historically has not run that way.
“It was also so interesting to hear the different perspectives on the growth of the space industry in New Zealand—basically why this is a good place to be at a good time,” Faun says.
Dr Tulasi Parashar, Director of the Space Science programme at the University, expressed excitement at the opportunity to connect with someone of Heidemarie's calibre, underscoring New Zealand's strength in cutting-edge space research.
“As a nation, Aotearoa is doing cutting-edge research when it comes to sending things into space. It’s amazing how much of a hefty punch we pack for our weight.
“Because we’re in such a new industry here, we can think in cross-disciplinary ways—and that cross-disciplinary thinking is the kind of thing we teach in our Space Science major at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.”
If you’re interested in studying Space Science with us, find out more information about the major here.