‘IRELAND’S SPACE INDUSTRY’ isn’t a common phrase.

You don’t hear much about Irish astronauts, nor Irish rockets.

There is a little bit of change afoot – Ireland’s involvement with European Space Agency projects is growing, and next year, the very first Irish satellite will be in orbit around Earth (all going to plan).

But you can also find Irish fingerprints on the Apollo programme, and even on the fundamental maths that underpins space travel.

Space commentator Leo Enright joins us on this week’s episode to explore these topics further – examined in detail by the latest cycle of The Good Information Project – and to look at how Ireland could play a part in the new private, commercial space race. We also explain what EIRSAT-1 will get up to in orbit around Earth.

The Explainer / SoundCloud

This episode was put together by presenter Sinéad O’Carroll, and producers Aoife Barry and Nicky Ryan.

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here. 

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