Dragon opens the door for Australians in space

Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft mission will open the door for Australia to produce its first fully homegrown astronaut.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Picture: AP.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft mission will open the door for Australia to produce its first fully homegrown astronaut, according to Australian-born NASA astronaut Andy Thomas.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule this week travelled to the International Space Station in a historic test mission that could soon mark the US’s return to its human spaceflight program.

NASA is mulling over using the spacecraft to send its astronauts into space later this year for the first time since the space ­shuttle program ended in 2011.

Thomas, who was born in ­Adelaide but had to become a US citizen to join NASA’s astronaut program, said with commercial spacecraft replacing those of NASA, the door would open for an Australian to go into space for the first time: “You could see at some point Australia would consider flying a crew member on a NASA or privately sponsored mission. In the past, human flights were national enterprises and any country wanting to participate required agreements with one of the few countries (the US or Russia) that were flying people. Australia had no such agreements.

“With the advent of commercial providers, it will be more about fare-paying than what passport a crew member carries. I can see a time where an Aus­tralian institution, be it government, private industry or university, might fly a crew member on a mission.”