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To ±«Óătv and beyond! Dal alum Kathryn Sullivan charts the promise and perils of modern space exploration

- May 29, 2025

Dr. Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space and the first woman to descend to the lowest point in the ocean. (Danny Abriel photos)
Dr. Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space and the first woman to descend to the lowest point in the ocean. (Danny Abriel photos)

She may be listed in the Guinness World Records as the world’s most ‘vertical person,’ but at ±«Óătv, we proudly call Dr. Kathryn Sullivan (PhD'78) one of our own.

The former NASA astronaut, oceanographer, and renowned explorer returned last Friday to her alma mater to speak with students, alumni, and space enthusiasts, offering a front-row seat into the future of what she calls the “New Space Age.”

Since receiving her PhD in geology from ±«Óătv in 1978, Dr. Sullivan has seen the world at its highest and lowest points — literally.Ìę

In 1984, she became the first American woman to walk in space during NASA’s STS-41G mission. In 2020, she made history again becoming the first woman to descend to Challenger Deep inside the Mariana Trench, the lowest point in the ocean, nearly seven miles beneath the ocean’s surface.Ìę


The Faculty of Science and Office of Advancement organized The New Space Age talk.

The dawn of a “New Space Age”


In her lecture, organized by Dal's Faculty of Science and Office of Advancement,ÌęDr. Sullivan made it clear that the conversation about modern space exploration is about much more than SpaceX — Elon Musk's American space technology company.

“We are in the very early stages of a different space age than the one we grew up in,” she said.Ìę

What does this look like? Space, as Dr. Sullivan noted, is becoming increasingly congested, contested, and commercialized.Ìę


Dr. Sullivan's talk was held in the Irving Oil Auditorium on Sexton Campus.

Just a decade ago, 1,300 active satellites were orbiting Earth. That number has since surged past 10,000. But it’s not just the satellites that are cluttering space. Thousands of tonnes of debris from mission launches and decommissioned satellites now clog Earth’s orbit. Currently, hundreds of millions of fragments, some no larger than a poppy seed, are hurtling through space at speeds of up to 20,000 miles per hour.

Too small to track, Sullivan calls it a “cloud of uncertainty”

Although one thing is certain — in the high odds of a collision, “It’s like getting hit by a high-powered bullet from a high-powered rifle,” Dr. Sullivan says. “If any one of these things bump into another, it creates a dispersion that becomes untraceable again.”

There’s no traffic control

As orbital space grows more congested, it’s also becoming prime real estate as more players join the space race. “When I was a youngster and starting into my years at NASA, there were only two space players on this entire planet,” she says. Today, more than 70 countries have constituted National Space Agencies.

“Different companies in different countries vying for the same thing, the same landscape, the same acreage, the same usage, the same resources,” she says. “All of that is being driven by commercial interests and the economic prospects that these companies and their investors see in the future.”


Dr. Sullivan, far left, was joined in a panel discussion following her talk by (l-r) fellow 2025 Aurum Award recipient Arad Gharagozli (BEng’20), Stephen Matier, founder, CEO and director of Maritime Launch, and Dr. David Barclay, a Dal oceanography professor who served as moderator.

This result is a booming space economy that, as Sullivan describes it, is operating as a kind of Wild West. As for the rules? Those seem to be lightyears away. “All those crowded satellites running around within a few hundred kilometers of the Earth, there is no regime, no solace where everyone’s come to agree to ground rules,” she says. “There’s no traffic control.”

A message to the next generation


Dr. Sullivan says the privatization of space should not deter future astronauts, however. She believes there is plenty to be optimistic about in the New Space Age.

“It is fostering innovation,” she says. “The rung in the ladder has been lowered. Dropping the costs means more people, more companies, more universities can climb aboard the space ladder, whatever their purposes are.”


An attendee asks a question.

“They’re attracting a lot of young talent and giving them some of the most high-speed innovative experience at a young age that space engineering professionals have not had arguably since the Apollo era.”

Despite the complex technical and geopolitical challenges of commercial space, Dr. Sullivan’s advice for those dreaming of becoming just as vertical is simple: “Dream big, work hard, and ignore anybody who tells you no.”

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