Cork's Laura over moon to be part of satellite team

A CORK woman is part of a team that will make history this week when Ireland’s first satellite, EIRSAT-1, is launched by rocket into orbit.

The sateillite is scheduled to take flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California, aboard a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket on Wednesday evening.

Laura Cotter, from Minane Bridge, is a member of the student-led team at University College Dublin (UCD) that designed and built EIRSAT-1, which will carry three experiments into space and report data back to a command centre on the campus.

Laura and her colleagues have been working with The European Space Agency (ESA) on their ‘Fly Your Satellite’ programme, receiving training, space-expert mentoring, and hands-on guidance.

The development of the spacecraft has introduced space-systems engineering and skills to Irish industry and academia.

Laura graduated with a BSc in physics with astronomy and space science from UCD in 2022. She is a PhD student in the UCD Space Science group, focusing on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and supernovae.

She is working on testing and operations for the EIRSAT-1 satellite, and she plans to use data from the satellite’s detector to further her own PhD research.

Luara said it has been a “truly amazing” project to work on. “Our team in UCD is the first in the country to design and build a satellite that will be launched into orbit and then operated from Ireland,” she said.

“Having started on this project as a student, and worked on it for so long, it is extremely exciting to now be this close to launch date,” she added.

The satellite’s three experiments will test new space technologies developed in Ireland, including an advanced instrument that will probe the early universe.

The project has received programmatic and educational support from the ESA Education Office. EIRSAT-1 has received funding from Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council, Enterprise Ireland, UCD, Openet, and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The Irish European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO) has also supported the engagement of school students with inspirational and educational activities around the EIRSAT-1 project.