Ireland’s first satellite EIRSAT-1 (Educational Irish Research Satellite 1), which has taken just over five years to develop, is now ready for launching, possibly between mid-January and mid-February of this current year.
The satellite was designed, developed, built and tested at University College Dublin (UCD) and will be launched 520km into the sky from the European spaceport in French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America, before orbiting the Earth for some five years; to return to earth and UCD.
Last year the Irish Government signed of an agreement to facilitate the launch of the developed EIRSAT-1 satellite, having received funding from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI); the Irish Research Council; Enterprise Ireland, UCD, Openet, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE), and the European Space Education Resource Office (ESE).
The Irish government intend to register the satellite on the UN Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
Assistant professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at UCD, Dr David McKeown, was the engineering manager on the project, and this being the first Irish designed satellite; Dr McKeown hopes this project will lay the ground work for larger satellites into the future.
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