'History made' as Ireland launches first satellite

The student-built miniature cube satellite was initially due to launch from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) launch site in French Guiana at the beginning of this year. However, mechanical issues with its transporting rocket hampered plans in a “devastating” setback for the team involved.

But that is all in the past as they celebrated the successful launch yesterday evening, watching six years’ worth of hard work blast off into space.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/iXndCsnEFL

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 1, 2023

Minister of State Neale Richmond said history has been made, adding that “everyone should be proud of the part they played in this milestone for Ireland and its space sector”.

Since 2017, the EIRSAT-1 team have designed, built, and carried out testing on the satellite, which is about the size of a milk carton.

Project manager Ronan Wall said the team celebrated as they watched their hard work take flight. He said:

It’s incredibly exciting and deeply satisfying to have finally joined other nations across Europe and the world that are positioned to do great research and innovation from our own spacecraft.

University College Dublin (UCD) president Professor Orla Feely said it is a remarkable first for the scientific community in Ireland. “The UCD team has taken a significant step for space education, research, and capacity-building in Ireland,” she said.

Director of EIRSAT-1 and the UCD Centre for Space Research Professor Lorraine Hanlon said it represents the culmination of hard work by a young team and a “huge amount” of support by the Irish space industry.

“The next step now is to get used to operating our new spacecraft and get the maximum research and training out of it,” she said.

Now that it is in low Earth orbit, the team will be able to operate EIRSAT-1 from UCD while carrying out three experiments.

Alongside an experiment to detect gamma rays, the satellite will test an in-orbit demonstration of a protective coating technology developed by UCD and Enbio Ltd, as well as a new control system designed in the UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

ESA director general Josef Aschbacher congratulated the team for the successful launch “and the start of Ireland’s first exciting adventure in orbit”.