Welcome to SpaceTech Ireland - a fast, Ireland-focused read on the space economy.

This week: Réaltra is developing optical communications hardware for a 2028 launch as part of an ESA programme building the laser links that will let satellites talk directly to each other. It’s a first for a company best known for putting cameras on Ariane. Chief innovation officer Michael Martin also sets out plans for lighter, cheaper cameras for space, and gives his read on the dual-use bill still waiting on its final stages in the Dáil. Elsewhere: DCU hosts Ireland's first defence hackathon in October, LandSpace brings a booster home in the Gobi, and four Irish companies are hiring.

Réaltra is moving into satellite laser communications, joining a European Space Agency programme to develop inter-satellite laser links.

Chief innovation officer Michael Martin told SpaceTech Ireland the Dublin company is developing an inter-satellite laser communications product for a planned 2028 launch, as part of AIDAN Next, an ESA project run by a consortium led by American operator Viasat.

"We're actively developing a product for that now," he said.

It marks a first move into optical communications for Réaltra, a company best known for the video telemetry system it flies aboard the European launcher Ariane 6.

The product is intended for a 2028 launch and will be used for inter-satellite laser communication links within constellations, he said.

Optical terminals like this let satellites pass large amounts of data directly between each other using laser beams, moving information across a constellation quickly without routing every transmission through a ground station first.

AIDAN Next, a follow on from the initial AIDAN project (Advanced Innovative Data Access Network), is an ESA partnership of 14 industrial and research partners across six countries, including Ireland. It is developing lighter, cheaper optical terminals alongside network automation, artificial intelligence and hybrid satellite-network technology.

AIDAN Next is a separate programme from IRIS², the EU's planned satellite constellation, though the two share overlapping technology.

“We are not currently involved in the IRIS project but we are looking at how we can partner with companies,” Martin said later in a follow-up mail.

If Réaltra's product reaches orbit in 2028, it could give the company vital flight experience in the field just as the €15.6 billion IRIS² programme, expanded this month to 348 satellites, begins deployment, with first launches due in 2029 and services from 2030.

Réaltra is also developing the next generation of its VIKI camera system, used on Europe's Ariane launchers.

The Dublin company revealed to SpaceTech Ireland last week that it’s heading to Prague at the end of September to pitch European venture capital for the first time, with plans to double its 20-strong workforce within a year and open a US office.

Réaltra's VIKI camera system flies on Ariane 6 and was aboard the Ariane 5 that carried the James Webb Space Telescope in December 2021.

"We are currently working to develop the next generation to reduce the weight and cost out of the VIKI video system for use on the new generation of small launchers.

“This includes a cryogenic camera for launcher fuel tanks. This will allow launcher companies to have live, HD video inside the hydrogen and methane tanks to monitor the fuel movements during flights."

"So we're coming up with some really, really good innovative ideas," he said. "And we'll be developing those now over the next year. We'll be able to switch over to the new generation at the end of this."

The new generation will be lighter and more cost-effective as well, he said.

Today's issue comes from an hour with Réaltra's Michael Martin: the move into laser communications, a camera that films inside a rocket's fuel tanks, and what the dual-use bill changes for Irish companies. One email a week. Subscribe

The government is set to pass legislation this year making it easier for State agencies to support dual-use projects.

The Industrial Development (Amendment) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill cleared committee stage on 1 July but still needs its final Dáil stages and passage through the Seanad. No date has been set, though the Dáil returns in September.

"That will happen, and that opens up a whole new area for Enterprise Ireland," Martin said.

The bill would remove the requirement for Cabinet approval before IDA Ireland or Enterprise Ireland can support companies working on projects of "primarily military relevance".

Martin pointed to the growing amount of European funding available for defence-related technology. "So it's going to change dramatically, what Enterprise Ireland can do and fund. So that will open up new horizons for Irish companies," he said.

The topic remains contested, he added. "But, you know, it's always going to be a topic of conversation, because people have very strong views on this. And some people are completely against anything. Some people are, you know, OK, as long as it's not used for destructive missiles or things like this.

“And I think that's the majority in Ireland. We can't ignore it. We have to come to terms with it."

Asked whether Réaltra's place on the EU's CASSINI accelerator left it well positioned to chase this growing pool of defence-related funding, Martin was cautious. "Yeah, possibly," he said. "We're more just using what we have now, particularly in the clusters of satellites, which I think most countries are going to take on now."

He sees the same constellation technology moving into surveillance work that Ireland currently carries out with ships and aircraft. "Why should Ireland have a ship when you can have a cluster of satellites to do it all in real time, quickly?" he said.

Martin also pointed to civilian applications for the same infrastructure, including detecting and monitoring wildfires. "I think we're going to see more and more countries coming together and having these clusters of satellites to do this type of work," he said. "So there will be a lot in that area."

Even with the bill still to clear its final stages, a shift in government policy is already visible.

DCU:Innovate Hub announced this week it will host Ireland's first defence hackathon in October with the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and Deloitte Ireland.

Its aim is to lower the barriers facing startups and smaller companies looking to adapt civilian technology for security, resilience and defence work.

Ronan Cunningham, director of DCU:Innovate, said the ambition was to build "an indigenous national security technology ecosystem" in Ireland, rather than see those capabilities developed abroad.

The hackathon runs under the Department of Defence regardless of the bill. But the legislation would change whether a company coming out of it can go to Enterprise Ireland in the normal way, or needs government approval first because the technology has a military application.

Teams face three challenges: navigating drones when satellite positioning is disrupted, coordinating drone swarms with artificial intelligence, and - set by the Defence Forces with the Irish Space Association - maritime domain awareness, the same territory Martin describes above.

Organisers expect a working prototype from each team and put likely attendance at more than 100 participants across 10 to 20 teams.

🚀 Rocket Lab wants to put a launch pad in a shipping container and land it anywhere in the world. On 10 August, Rocket Lab unveiled GHOST (Global Hypersonic & Orbital Spaceport Technology): a fully containerised launch system that packages rockets, ground support and range control into standard shipping containers, deployable to remote sites in weeks rather than years. The first GHOST site is being built at Kodiak, Alaska, targeting an initial suborbital launch in 2027.

🚀 China's LandSpace landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on 18 August after its second orbital flight, touching down 390km from the launch site, though video showed a fire in the aft section after touchdown. It's the first time a Chinese commercial company has recovered an orbital rocket booster, making LandSpace the third company, after SpaceX and Blue Origin, to land an orbital booster on legs.

🚀 UCD is running its short course in satellite radar from 10 September. The course runs 12 weeks, taught online with the option of attending in person, and is led by Dr Alexis Hrysiewicz of UCD's School of Earth Sciences. Students taking the postgraduate-level course learn to find the satellite images, process them and interpret what the results mean. The fee is €1,020, or €800 with the Skillnet subsidy for people working in private companies based in Ireland. Apply through the UCD micro-credentials site. Funding questions to Catherine Lenehan at the Space Industry Skillnet, course questions to [email protected].

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ESA Phi-Lab Ireland Open Call 2026 - Irish Manufacturing Research's ESA Phi-Lab (Mullingar) offers ESA innovation seed funding of up to €400,000 for projects under two years, covering advanced materials, additive manufacturing and structural analysis, plus mentorship and access to research infrastructure. Deadline 8 September 2026. esaphilab.ie

CASSINI Business Accelerator - Batch 8. Applications are open for the next intake of the European Commission's space accelerator. Six months, no equity taken, around 20 companies per batch, and a €75,000 seed voucher on completion. Applicants must be an SME registered in an EU member state, Iceland or Norway, and the programme is aimed at companies already selling or close to it.

Réaltra is on the current batch, which runs to the end of October. Celtonn went through the 2025 cohort. Applied Aerial Technology made an earlier batch. That is three Irish companies since CASSINI began in 2023.

Deadline 2 October - cassini.eu/accelerator

ESA BASS Kick-Starts - feasibility-study funding up to €75,000 (75% of eligible costs, max total project value €100,000), rolling submissions. Deadline for the current tranche is 28 August 2026. business.esa.int/funding

Horizon Europe EU Space Research Call 2026 (HORIZON-CL4-2026-SPACE-03) -€90.97m total budget across 8 topics, managed by HaDEA, part of Cluster 4 Destination 5. Deadline 3 September 2026. HaDEA

PICTURE: Looking like a massive stricken whale, SpaceX’s Starship is now floating off the coast of Christmas Island after 24 days at sea following Flight 13’s intact Indian Ocean splashdown.

“Looks like we will probably catch the ship with the tower in a few months. If there had been a tower out to sea where we practiced landing the ship, it would have been caught,” said Elon Musk on X.

“First reflight of the ship will be either end of this year or early next. That will be a fork in the road of history for consciousness reaching the stars.”

Next week: more funding, contracts, and careers in Ireland's space economy - delivered weekly.

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