Australia's First Astronaut Recognised at The Big Day In
On August 20th, 2026, Australia's first astronaut, Paul Scully-Power was recognised at the Canberra Big Day In.
200 high school students heard about Paul's ground-breaking career. Fittingly, these students were at the beginning of their careers, and they were encouraged to think big about new technology frontiers and space travel.
Paul was the payload specialist of the flight and an oceanographer and is credited with having made some amazing discoveries during the 6th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle Challenger. Paul's flight was the Challengers' 13th expedition, and it launched on April 6, 1984, and returned on April 17, 1984.
John Ridge, reflected on the emotion of the launch. "If you could imagine climbing of top of an object the height of a 30-storey building full of high explosives and crossing your fingers, that was the courage of these space explorers", he said.
Paul also served in the Royal Australian Navy, UK’s Royal Navy, the US Navy, US Military Intelligence, NASA, the Pentagon and the White House. But his most unique achievement was being the first man in space with a beard.
Paul's recognition was part of a broader STEM career day for years 9-12 high school students. called the Big Day In. Held in the nations' capital, this career event provided 200 local students the opportunity to explore technology related jobs. Last week, 200 hundred more students joined in with the Gold Coast Big Day In at Griffith University on August 13th. Last month, 500 students also participated in the Big Day In - UQ on July 16th. Each of these events are part of the annual Big Day In (BDI) Program Road Trip.
At each BDI, STEM and technology employers host exhibition booths and give student-centric presentations about the jobs of the future within their organisations. Industry representatives came from ADF Careers, Trellis Data, AFP, ASD, ACS. Technology One, Careers With STEM, Acenci, Woolworths, Wise tech, Westpac and more.
Also, at the Big Day In Canberra, Anneliese Rothe was awarded the 4th Women of STEM (WoS) scholarship for 2026. She was the 16th scholarship recipient of the WoS Program. All of this comes together to prove that the spectrum of age and gender are no barrier when in comes to building a career in technology.
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