Ireland’s first satellite has been flown into space on a rocket launched from California – The Irish Times

Ireland has finally joined the space age. Eirsat-1, the country’s first satellite, was launched into space on Friday evening aboard a Falcon 9 Space

There were celebrations at the Mission Control Center at University College Dublin in Dublin, where the satellite – which resembles a Battenberg cake in size and shape – was designed and built by dozens of students over the past six years.

The initial celebrations were tempered by the nerve-wracking two-hour wait to contact the satellite after it was unloaded from the mothership and sent into orbit.

The team was unable to make contact when it first passed over Ireland shortly after 9pm on Friday evening, but hoped to do so during subsequent flights, via its ground stations in Kerry and Dublin.

Just before 10:30pm, UCD tweeted that it had received a signal from the satellite.

“It’s emotional,” said Maeve Doyle, PhD student and senior software engineer. “It’s surreal, to be honest. Six years of work has brought us to this point. It’s hard to believe.”

Sheila McBreen, a professor in the UCSD School of Physics who is part of the academic and professional leadership team, was also on top form.

“I feel a sense of calm, pride and overall excitement about what happens next,” she said.

In total, around 50 UCD students, including nine PhD students and nine Masters students, have produced 23 research publications so far after its construction. It took 20,000 hours of testing and problem solving to get to this point.

The satellite carries three experiments, including a gamma-ray detector that will study some of the brightest explosions in the universe.

Another experiment involves measuring temperature modulation in space via alternate checkerboard plates on top of the satellite.

[ Eirsat-1 launch: all you need to know about Ireland’s first satellite ]

There will be a third experiment with wave control, an innovative way to ensure that satellites in space are pointed in the right direction.

Speaking before the launch, UCD President Professor Orla Feeley said many students would be proud to see “a little piece of Ireland, a little piece of UCD” in the night sky.

“The technical challenge of packing everything into such a small space is amazing. Space is the gateway for many science and engineering students.

Paraphrasing the immortal words of Neil Armstrong, she said: It is a small step for the Irish space industry, but the start of something huge.