Franco-American space transportation company Hstar Space is building a heavy-class rocket to blast off global infrastructure into orbit. Its upcoming launch vehicle is designed to carry up to 60 tonnes of payload.

Once complete, they hope to blast it off from spaceports around the world, including locally at the upcoming Space Centre Australia in far north Queensland.

In this special episode, the CEO of Hstar, Nick Orenstein, and the founder of Space Centre Australia, James Palmer, discuss their upcoming plans.

This week, the Space Connect Podcast features a returning guest: Paul Hawkins, the founder of Crazy Might Work.

His company is a leadership and innovation academy that brings lessons from frontiers like space to the workplace.

More simply put, Hawkins and his team work with leaders and their teams to create and mobilise high-performing teams.

Their re-imagination of NASA’s successful 4-D program won the Australian Space Awards 2025 for Workplace Initiative of the Year.

Host Adam Thorn and Hawkins discuss this and what exactly makes great leadership and high-performing teams.

Last month, Space Connect held its Australian Space Summit and Exhibition, or AusSpace, in Sydney.

The highlight of the event though was a panel where schoolchildren were given the chance to interview three astronauts. We've got the audio so you can listen in.

The panel included Paul Scully-Power, Australia’s first-ever astronaut, who went to space in 1984; Eric Philips, who only blasted off to space on a private SpaceX mission in April; and Katherine Bennell-Pegg, the first astronaut to formally qualify under the Australian flag.