Ireland has finally entered the Space Age. Ailesat 1, the state’s first artificial satellite, was carried into space Friday night aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched from California.
A celebration was held in the control room at UCD 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 celebration was tempered by a nerve-wracking two-hour wait for contact with the satellite after it was separated from its mothership and sent into orbit.
The team was unable to make contact as it first passed over Ireland just after 9pm on Friday night, but hoped to be able to make contact via ground stations in Kerry and Dublin during subsequent flights. .
Just before 10:30 p.m., UCD tweeted that it had received a signal from the satellite.
“It’s emotional,” said Maeve Doyle, a doctoral student and lead software engineer. “It’s surreal to be honest. Six years of work got us to the point. It’s hard to believe.”
Sheila McBreen, professor in UCD’s Department of Physics and part of the academic and professional leadership team, was equally elated.
“I feel a sense of calm and overall pride and excitement about what’s going to happen next,” she said.
A total of around 50 UCD students, including nine PhD students and nine Masters students, have published 23 research publications to date since its construction. It took him 20,000 hours of testing and problem solving to reach this stage.
The satellite runs three experiments, including a gamma-ray detector that studies some of the brightest explosions in the universe.
Another experiment will measure temperature changes in space through an alternate checkerboard panel on top of the satellite.
[ Eirsat-1 launch: all you need to know about Ireland’s first satellite ]
A third experiment on wave-based control is performed. This is an innovative way to keep satellites pointing in the right direction in space.
Ahead of the launch, UCD president Professor Orla Feeley said many students would be proud to see “a little piece of Ireland, a little part of UCD” in the night sky.
“The technical challenge of cramming everything into that small space is amazing. Space is an entry point for many science and engineering students.”
![](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/vLjxBklRg5-9PaXqFtOuCj5sUNA=/1440x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/KLFFBKNWFNDE3A7MSBANPNVGZY.jpg)
Paraphrasing the immortal words of Neil Armstrong, she said this was one small step for the Irish space industry, but the beginning of something big.