About Kate Breach
Kate was born and raised in the heartland of the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. At the age of about 14, she decided to become an astronaut and wrote to NASA to find out how. And NASA wrote back. So began Kate’s journey reaching for the stars… although there have been a few deviations from chasing that space suit!
After graduating university with an honours degree in Engineering, Kate became an officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) before moving to the UK and exchanging her RNZAF commission for a commission as an officer in Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force (RAF). Kate was selected to lead a team of highly trained technicians on the RAF’s first Eurofighter Typhoon fighter squadron, where she worked integrally with aircraft designers and fighter pilots.
Kate participated in several high profile events as the RAF brought the new, high tech Typhoon fighter jet into operational service, including launching the first ever Typhoon display over Buckingham Palace – for Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday.
After almost ten years of military career success, Kate retired her commission and left the UK to seek new challenges. Over a few years of global adventuring, Kate hanglided over Rio de Janiero, hiked to Everest Base Camp, worked on a Hollywood blockbuster movie set and secured multimillion dollar projects for companies in both New Zealand and Australia. Oh, and detoured via film school in Los Angeles for a little while to learn how to write movie screenplays.
Kate’s global adventures seeded a passion for international politics and a drive to do something good in the world and so she returned to New Zealand to once again don a uniform. Kate proudly represented the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in an international peace keeping role, as part of a multinational United Nations Command team monitoring the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.
On completing a Masters degree in International Relations, Kate once again hung up her uniform to pursue a diplomatic career path for New Zealand. At about the same time Kate began negotiating international free trade deals, a commercial space launch company began to successfully reach orbit from Aotearoa New Zealand. Kate took on the space policy portfolio for New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, representing New Zealand at international space meetings including the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Space, and working closely with the New Zealand Space Agency on New Zealand’s national interests and international considerations for regulation of rocket and satellite launches from Aotearoa.
With her space passions once again ignited, Kate joined the New Zealand Space Agency where she regulated of space launch of both rockets and satellites from Aotearoa then took up an aerospace technical specialist role, working with New Zealand space companies, universities, international space companies and other space agencies like NASA, to further develop Aotearoa’s space sector.
Kate currently works as a space sector consultant and technical advisor, working with New Zealand space companies, organisations and research teams, and helping them engage with international space companies and space agencies. She is also extremely proud to have been a founding member of Women in Space Aotearoa New Zealand (WISANZ), and is honoured to have been elected by her fellow members be the first ever President of the Committee for WISANZ www.womeninspace.co.nz
Kate is incredibly passionate about the new era of global space exploration – and about increasing the number of women working in the space sector, particularly in technical roles. It’s Kate’s personal passion (and maybe mission?) to see more opportunities to be a part of the new era of space exploration from right here in Aotearoa New Zealand - particularly for women.
