Ireland’s first satellite EIRSAT-1 completes its mission

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN: Ireland’s first satellite, EIRSAT-1, has completed its mission orbiting the Earth. The CubeSat, which was built and launched by students and faculty of University College Dublin (UCD), will de-orbit in the next day or two.

EIRSAT-1 was launched into space in 2023, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) ‘Fly Your Satellite’ programme funded by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. It carried three onboard payloads for its low-Earth orbit mission, which conducted three experiments, managed by students and staff at mission control in UCD.

Director of the EIRSAT-1 project and UCD C-Space, the Centre for Space Research, Professor Lorraine Hanlon said: “Although it's a sad day for the team, we're proud that EIRSAT-1 has reached the end of its mission, having achieved all of its goals. We're keen to apply what we have learned, building new missions and collaborating to grow Ireland's space sector. I want to acknowledge the achievements of everyone who played a role on the team and worked incredibly hard to make it such a success.”

Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail Alan Dillon, TD, said: “I want to offer my congratulations to the UCD team involved in EIRSAT-1 for their talent, leadership and dedication to achieving what has been a pioneering mission. I was very pleased to learn of the success of each of EIRSAT-1’s scientific payloads – GMOD, which was developed with components from onsemi in Cork and EMOD, which was developed with ENBIO based in Dublin – and that the mission was also supported by the provision of in-kind support by other companies. This demonstrates the potential and ambition which can be achieved when industry and academia collaborate. 

“I am very proud that the mission was supported by my Department, through our membership of the European Space Agency. EIRSAT-1 demonstrates the value of membership of the European Space Agency for a small country, such as Ireland, giving our researchers and companies access to a unique platform to develop novel technologies and strengthen our national capabilities in space research and technology.”

Dr Padraig Doolan, Irish Delegation to ESA at Enterprise Ireland, said: “The successful conclusion of EIRSAT-1 marks a milestone for Ireland’s space sector. It shows how Ireland not only participates, but also leads, complex space missions from design through to operations. The mission is also a strong example of academia and industry working hand-in-hand, and Irish companies providing critical technologies and expertise. The knowledge, skills and innovations developed are already feeding into new initiatives and opportunities. Enterprise Ireland is proud to have supported this trailblazing mission, and we are excited to work with our partners to build on its success, accelerating Ireland’s growth as a space-faring nation.”

UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, Professor Kate Robson Brown, said: “Ireland became a space-faring nation with the launch of our first-ever satellite, EIRSAT-1, and I congratulate all the staff and students at UCD whose dedication and expertise over many years have driven the success of this mission. UCD has deep expertise in space science and engineering and is in a prime position to take Ireland forward into a new and ambitious era of growth for the space sector, which will deliver both scientific discovery and societal impact. Our researchers are working at the frontiers of next-generation in-orbit technologies, and they, along with our graduates, are already bringing that expertise to industry.”

During the mission, the (opens in a new window)Gamma-Ray Module (GMOD) detected 10 cosmological gamma-ray bursts and two solar flares, contributing to scientific knowledge and understanding about the universe. The (opens in a new window)Wave-Based Control (WBC) module tested and validated a novel control system for advanced satellite pointing in space. The (opens in a new window)ENBIO module (EMOD) was a materials testing platform to test the performance of thermal management coatings in low-Earth orbit for the first time. Over the course of the project, the EIRSAT-1 team (opens in a new window)published 24 academic journal and conference papers sharing the results of the research and technological developments.

More than 50 students, mostly postgraduate in Physics and Mechanical and Materials Engineering and some in Computer Science and Mathematics, learned end-to-end space systems skills not previously seen in Irish industry. These included 13 PhD students funded by prestigious Irish Research Council scholarships. In 2024, UCD delivered a new ‘Spacecraft Operations’ module as part of an MSc in Space Science and Technology, developed by EIRSAT-1 lead systems engineer and chief operator Dr David Murphy. The course trained a further 20 students who gained experience operating the satellite in orbit.

The success of the EIRSAT-1 project has directly supported the development and funding of more projects and programmes by UCD, including the National Space Subsystems and Payloads Initiative (NSSPI), a programme launched in March 2024 led by UCD’s (opens in a new window)Dr David McKeown (engineering and WBC academic lead on EIRSAT-1), with over €7.9 million in funding from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund. NSSPI is developing next-generation satellite control systems using model-based design and hardware-in-the-loop testing to accelerate innovation in Irish space technology.

The Research-Ireland-funded (opens in a new window)GIFTS project builds on the success of GMOD and is led by UCD’s (opens in a new window)Prof Sheila McBreen. It is a 6U CubeSat mission to detect and localise gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which will improve sky coverage of existing GRB observatories and contribute to the search for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave events.

In addition, UCD C-Space has been selected by ESA for a follow-on project called COMCUBES, led by Dr David Murphy, that will develop a CubeSat swarm to deliver faster and more detailed information about gamma-ray bursts. Scottish space company AAC Clyde Space has come aboard as a partner responsible for system design for the Phase A study.