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This week: ESA is gearing up for one of its busiest years on record, with 65 missions planned for 2026. But the year ahead brings setbacks alongside successes: while Irish companies prepare crucial roles in major missions like Hera and PLATO, the Mars Sample Return project has been scrapped following US budget cuts. At home, the sector's momentum shows in the jobs market, with Mbryonics alone advertising 26 positions at its expanding Galway operation.

• ESA secures record €8.26 billion for a packed mission schedule, including Ireland's involvement in both Hera and PLATO launches

• The Mars Sample Return mission has been cancelled after US Congress cuts funding, with ESA now repurposing its planned Earth Return Orbiter for atmospheric research

• Dublin-based InnaLabs' navigation system continues guiding Hera toward the Didymos asteroid, set to arrive next December

• Irish space companies are hiring across the board, with Mbryonics leading the surge

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ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher highlighted an unprecedented mission schedule for 2026 at his annual press briefing on Thursday, calling it "one of the most mission-dense and strategically important years" in the agency's history.

Key highlights from the briefing:

ESA had committed to building the Earth Return Orbiter, a spacecraft designed to collect rock samples gathered by NASA's Perseverance rover and ferry them back to Earth - the first time material from another planet would be brought home for analysis.

The mission's ballooning costs prompted US Congress to withdraw funding, leaving ESA's nearly completed orbiter without a mission. Rather than abandon the €1.5 billion investment, the agency is now reconfiguring the spacecraft to study Mars's atmosphere and climate.

Hera (arriving December 2026): Dublin-based InnaLabs designed the ARIETIS-NS gyroscope navigation system guiding the spacecraft to the Didymos asteroid system. The system has been performing successfully since the October 2024 launch, tracking the spacecraft's spin rate and orientation as Hera travels through deep space. The mission is arriving a month ahead of schedule.

PLATO (launching December 2026): Réaltra Space Systems Engineering delivered Ireland's largest-ever contribution to an ESA science mission - a €3.4 million PayLoad Interface Unit providing thermal control for PLATO's 26 telescopes.

In November, engineers successfully integrated Réaltra's system when they joined the two halves of the spacecraft. PLATO is now entering final environmental testing at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in The Netherlands before shipment to Kourou.

It’s just over four years since the James Webb Space Telescope lifted off from French Guiana on 25 December 2021. As the €10 billion observatory departed Earth, Irish technology provided humanity's final glimpse of the mission.

Réaltra's VIKI camera system, mounted on the Ariane 5 upper stage, captured the telescope's separation and deployment - the last visual confirmation before Webb began its month-long journey to the L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. That Irish-engineered technology now flies as standard equipment on the new Ariane 6 launcher, cementing Ireland's role in European space infrastructure.

Since reaching operational orbit in mid-2022, Webb has observed galaxies forming just 300 million years after the Big Bang, analysed exoplanet atmospheres, and captured unprecedented detail in star-forming regions. The NASA-ESA-CSA mission is expected to operate well beyond its original 10-year design life, with fuel reserves sufficient through the 2030s.

Ubotica Technologies The DCU Alpha-based company puts artificial intelligence directly onto satellites for autonomous operation in orbit. Its CogniSAT-6 satellite detects vessels at sea, identifies attempts to hide ships, and spots wildfires within 10 minutes of imaging. Ubotica is working with the Irish naval service to monitor territorial waters.

Réaltra Space Systems Engineering The Dublin company built cameras that captured Ariane 6's first mission last year. Réaltra develops cost-effective space electronics using adapted commercial components, with work on the James Webb Space Telescope and contracts for the PLATO mission launching this year. The company is partnering with Ubotica on AI to predict satellite failures and plans to employ 50 people as European launch activity expands.

ÉireComposites The Galway company is manufacturing the central chassis tubes for LISA, which will position three satellites 2.5 million kilometres apart to detect gravitational waves from colliding black holes. ÉireComposites built the first external part ever manufactured in Ireland for space - three light baffles for an ozone monitoring satellite. The company spent 25 years in wind turbines and tidal energy before moving into space.

Proveye The UCD spin-out converts satellite imagery into fertiliser maps for individual farm paddocks. The company secured ESA funding last November to launch its ProvVari platform across Ireland this quarter before expanding to Europe and New Zealand. Proveye has partnerships with John Deere to integrate the technology into farm equipment and is working in Sub-Saharan Africa verifying carbon sequestration through satellite monitoring.

MBRYONICS The Galway company manufactures optical terminals for laser communications between spacecraft. Its StarCom terminal launches this year, supporting quantum encryption networks and enabling US government satellites to communicate with commercial constellations like Starlink. The European Innovation Council approved €17.5 million for MBRYONICS last March.

TechWorks Marine The Dublin company has provided marine data services since 2002. It now combines satellite imagery with data from its MiniBuoy platforms for offshore wind developers. TechWorks Marine's CoastEye platform automatically processes Sentinel satellite data to measure turbidity, suspended matter and chlorophyll. ESA gave the company €475,000 last year to expand across Europe's wind sector.

Celtonn This female-led startup develops high-frequency millimetre wave systems for satellite communications and 6G networks. Celtonn became the only Irish company selected for the CASSINI Business Accelerator last November, bringing €75,000 and investor access as the company seeks to close a €1.5 million funding round.

Pilot Photonics The DCU spin-out makes optical comb lasers that can transmit data on hundreds of frequencies simultaneously. One comb delivers the capacity of hundreds of individual lasers, which matters enormously as AI and cloud computing drive bandwidth demand through the roof. Pilot Photonics secured €2.5 million from the European Innovation Council for data centre technology and won the Paris Space Week innovation contest last year.

OCE Technology The Bray company develops radiation-hardened operating systems and AI chips for satellites that cannot afford to crash. OCE's real-time operating system prevents software deadlocks and provides extensive checks to ensure applications run exactly as designed. Their chips and circuits are already flying on 15 satellites, with customers across Europe, South Korea, China and Singapore.

Enbio Enbio's SolarBlack coating protects the heat shield on ESA's Solar Orbiter, which flies closer to the Sun than Mercury - where temperature and radiation would quickly destroy conventional materials. Enbio opened a centre of excellence in Clonmel in 2015 with ESA funding that exceeded €1.5 million and created more than a dozen jobs.

🚀 A company founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy unveiled plans for a large infrared space telescope bigger than Hubble. Promising faster development and lower costs through private funding, the project aims to revolutionize ground- and space-based astronomy with new observatories in the coming years.

🚀 Upcoming Launches (Excluding routine SpaceX missions)

Jan 11: Twilight (Pandora rideshare) – Falcon 9, Vandenberg, California

Jan 12: EOS-N1 – PSLV, Sriharikota, India

Jan 13: SatNet LEO Group – Long March 8A, Wenchang, China

🚀 “Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew 11’s mission” - NASA considers whether to bring a sick ISS crew member back to Earth.

🚀 “2026 will be a defining and mission-dense year for European space activities"- Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General at his annual press briefing.

🚀 “Mars Sample Return is currently not planned to be continued. It’s a fact. It’s also a fact that Europe cannot afford, on its own, a full Mars sample return mission,and therefore we are in the process of reorienting our contributions” - Daniel Neuenschwander, head of ESA’s human and robotic exploration directorate.

Image taken this week by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003.

Until next week...

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