PRESS RELEASE: Dr Caswell accepts nomination 8/14 Australian Space Awards 2026
Dr Caswell accepts nomination 8/14
Australian Space Awards 2026
2nd April 2026
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dr Gabrielle M Caswell of SpacePort Australia® Pty Ltd, has been nominated for 14 of 30 Australian Space Awards, 2026. Dr Caswell has confirmed her acceptance of eight of the 14 awards for which she received nomination, she was a finalist in the 2024 (3) and 2025 (5) awards. Dr Caswell says, “It’s an exciting time to be working in space, we are watching the renaissance of human space flight, beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and a return to the Moon.” She continued, “It’s particularly exciting as Artemis II had a smooth and successful launch earlier today, Australian time. Now we can all take a breath, until they return in ten days.”
Dr Caswell added, “We should remember the pictures of the first landing on the Moon, Apollo 11, Artemis’ brother ship, were directly beamed from Antenna One, Moree OTC, to the world. The Moree OTC station is now decommissioned, the site is 20 minutes from SpacePort Australia®. The Honeysuckle Creek Achieves has a wonderful repository of Australia’s long history of supporting space exploration. It has a great store of images, which are really worth reviewing”.
Dr Caswell has spent a large part of her working life spend in rural and remote environments, she has unique operational insight into the challenges of providing medical care for remote locations. She counts her advantages as having an intimate understanding of ecological systems management, molecular biology, and working as a rural and remote medical doctor. She is fond of reminding people: “If you have two you have one, and if you have one, then you have none”. She continued, “Important concepts for exploration class deep space missions, and remote space colonies, where, by virtue of location, you will have limited and finite resources. Technology needs to be robust, fixable and serve very precise purposes”.
Dr Caswell’s enthusiasm for science, in all its forms, blends into the requirements for novel problem solving, multi- and inter-disciplinary teams, with cross collaboration. With an eye on the next generation of space personal and problem solvers, Dr Caswell has formed several space education and training partnerships, including with the Montana Spaceport and Test Range®, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and international STEM educators ChameleCo® and STEM Innovation Council. These strategically focused education and space training bodies are working to prepare and train individuals for space careers. SpacePort Australia® is working with Arkisys®, to repurpose the International Space Station (ISS) Astrobee’s for medical deployment.
Dr Caswell is working within a number of USA states, creating academic to space orientated manufacturing hubs, capitalising on the concept of spaceport economic zones. Dr Caswell is hopeful that this concept returns to Australia, backed by the ongoing development of SpacePort Australia® and its international academic and commercial partnerships.
Dr Caswell stated she is privileged to have these associations, and excited to be mapping out academic and operational training pathways, coupled with excellent youth engagement strategies. “The STEM opportunities are enormous in the space industry, as I remind people what we have down here, they will want up there. And the challenge of keeping humans alive in space is just starting; deep space is a very different environment from LEO.” Continuing, she said, “Something which I had never considered, and a wonderful outcome of my folly, my retirement project [sic. SpacePort Australia®], is that SpacePort Australia® is a project which in the past year, has become an inter-generational project, that will hopefully thrive beyond my input.”
Dr Caswell said, “Academic science and applied space science will become a continuum. Pathways and opportunities are being created at lightning speed. It’s a wonderful time to be alive. Imagination has returned to science. Curiosity, left field ideas and novel solutions are back in vogue, and these will be ideas will lead to the scientific and space science careers of tomorrow”. Continuing, she reflected. “My view has always been that elder states-people have a responsibility to push forward Australian youth, young people, to place a few bricks on pathway for them [young scientists] to take their first steps. And it is evident now, we are on mission”.
Dr Caswell stated she was very grateful to her anonymous nominators. Finalists are due to be announced towards the end of April 2026. The Award ceremony will be held in Sydney, Thursday June 18th, 2026.
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Contact: [email protected]
Dr Gabrielle Caswell: www.DrGabrielleMCaswell.com
SpacePort Australia: www.spaceportaustralia.com.au
Astrobees: www.spaceportaustralia/associates/astrobees
Honeysuckle Creek Archives: https://www.honeysucklecreek.net/msfn_missions/index.html
