Flight Lieutenant Joelene Buntain PhD

Joelene’s career story

Flight Lieutenant Joelene Buntain was on a mission to fix a panel on the International Space Station. Floating in zero gravity, she opened her toolbox and reached for the wrench. Instead, it spun out of her grasp and hit the panel, obliterating the ISS in the process.

“I said, let me have another go. And I did it again. I destroyed the entire space station twice.”

It’s not every day you get to destroy the most expensive thing humans have ever made, but it’s all part of the job for Joelene.

As the Space Research and Development Coordinator at Defence Space Command, Joelene meets with companies who offer products and services for the space domain. On this particular day, she was meeting with a company that builds training platforms in virtual reality. On other days, she might be organising events, working with the Defence Science and Technology Group’s RMS STaR Shot program, or showing foreign military dignitaries around Lot Fourteen.

“Every day is different,” Joelene says. “I can never predict what the next day is going to be like.”

An early passion for the sky

Joelene grew up on a farm in Rockhampton in Central Queensland. At 16, she told her mum she wanted to learn how to fly a plane.

“Mum said okay, I’ll take you for a trial flight and we’ll see if you like it. And I was absolutely hooked.”

Joelene got her pilot’s licence 2 years later meaning she could fly a plane before she could legally drive a car. Later, she gained her night flying rating and completed a formation flying endorsement, and competed in flying competitions in Australia and New Zealand.

After finishing high school, Joelene went to CQUniversity – Australia’s largest regional university – to study physics. She then moved to Melbourne to do a PhD in astrophysics at Monash University.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the stars,” she says. “Living in the country, there’s no light at night so the sky is always lit up.”

From PhD to joining the Air Force

Joining the Air Force had always been a dream for Joelene. Near the end of her PhD, she went to an information night for women in Defence. “I was like, I could really do this,” she says.

She applied to join, and then three weeks after submitting her PhD she got a call. “It was the Air Force saying, we’re willing to take you on. Officer training starts in three weeks. Can you be there?”

After completing her officer training, Joelene spent 10 months training to be an air traffic controller. “It was so hard,” she says. “I hadn’t really failed a lot in my life, and I failed a lot at air traffic control. I put so much pressure on myself because I felt like I didn’t have a plan B.”

But she made it through the course, and was posted to Perth for a while before being moved to Tindal in the Northern Territory. That was a great time, with lots of camping with friends in Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. Another highlight was taking part in Exercise Pitch Black; a warfare simulation attended by militaries from all over the world.

Joelene also had a blast from the past one day when the plane she learned to fly in, a Cessna 172 with the registration VH-OZY, flew into Tindal.

“Ozzy we called it – I was doing air traffic and I was like, oh my god, that’s my plane!” she says.

The journey to Defence Space Command

After two years in air traffic control, Joelene needed a change. She was posted to Canberra to help with a research project in the History and Heritage Unit. But it wasn’t long before word got around about the flying astrophysicist.

She was asked to join the Surveillance of Space and Integration team, where she spent four months. “What I did there in four months was so eye-opening,” she says. She worked on a number of events, including UNSW Canberra’s M2 satellite launch, the Avalon Airshow and SpaceFest 2019.

Her mentor, then-Wing Commander Steve Henry, told her that if she wanted to keep working in space-related roles, she needed to become an air battle manager. She went to Newcastle for more training, this time passing with flying colours.

Not long after, she was posted to No. 1 Remote Sensor Unit (1RSU) in South Australia. This unit is responsible for several surveillance systems including the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), which can see beyond Australia’s borders. It also operates space surveillance systems that can monitor space assets and debris. Joelene spent 2 years there, managing a team of 40 operators.

Defence Space Command was established in January 2022, with Joelene coming on board in February. Her one condition was that she got to do the job from Adelaide. After living in every state except Tasmania, it was time to settle down.

And maybe one day, she’ll get back in the cockpit.

“I haven’t flown since 2017. I do miss flying. Maybe one day I'll take it up again."

“When I was 15 or 16 I had to get glasses. The optometrist told me my eyesight was no good and I’d never be a pilot. He was so mean! So don’t always listen to what other people say about what you should do in your career. Have confidence in your abilities.”