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

This week: Four astronauts are on their way to the Moon aboard a spacecraft kept alive by European engineering, Germany clears the way for Rocket Lab to absorb laser comms maker Mynaric, and the EIB formally approves a €500 million lending facility for European space SMEs. Closer to home, Dublin drone company Manna closed a $50 million Series B backed by ARK Invest, and Ireland gets its first dedicated link to the UN-affiliated Space Generation Advisory Council. We look at what it all means for Irish companies.

Four astronauts lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on April 1 aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, bound for the first crewed lunar flyby since 1972. Tucked behind the crew capsule, and doing most of the work, is a piece of hardware built entirely in Europe.

The European Service Module - ESA’s contribution to the Artemis programme - is responsible for propulsion, power generation and life support for the crew. It supplies air and water, provides electricity through four solar arrays, regulates the spacecraft’s temperature, and delivers propulsion for key manoeuvres in deep space.

The module was assembled by Airbus in Bremen, Germany, with contributions from across 13 ESA member states, 20 main contractors, and over 100 European suppliers. It carries 90 kilos of oxygen and 240 kilos of drinking water, and its four solar arrays generate 11.2 kilowatts of power, enough to support both spacecraft systems and high-speed communications.

ESA's Director General Josef Aschbacher described the mission as confirming "Europe's essential role in humankind's return to the Moon”.

No ESA astronaut is on board, but the agency's engineering is what keeps the crew alive. And it doesn’t stop there. ESM-3 is due to test rendezvous and docking capabilities in 2027, while ESM-4 is already at Kennedy Space Center undergoing integration for Artemis IV.

What about Ireland?

Ireland does not appear among the 13 ESA member states that contributed hardware to the ESM. That reflects a long-standing pattern. Ireland chose not to participate in the International Space Station programme, citing concerns about expense, and the ESM sits within ESA's human spaceflight budget, which Ireland has not historically subscribed to at scale.

The closest Irish footprint on the Artemis programme to date came via Carrigaline-based Varadis, which supplied ionising radiation sensors installed on the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022.

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The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) has appointed two new National Points of Contact for Ireland - Jake O’Brien, co-founder of Setanta Space, and Daire O’Sullivan, propulsion test engineer trainee at Destinus in Switzerland. They’ll work alongside SGAC executive member Amber Cher to build a community for students and young professionals looking to break into the sector.

SGAC advises the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and runs project groups and events aimed at the 18-35 age bracket.

Until now, Ireland has lacked a dedicated network connecting early-career talent with the growing number of companies hiring here.

Last December’s Beyond the Horizon report flagged gaps in systems engineering, project management and regulatory expertise across the Irish space workforce. A structured community feeding talent towards companies like Realtra, Mbryonics and Ubotica could help close that gap.

Anyone interested can join the SGAC Ireland WhatsApp group or sign up as a member at sgac.org

Germany has approved Rocket Lab’s acquisition of Mynaric, the Munich-based manufacturer of laser optical communications terminals. The deal is expected to close this month, giving the New Zealand-founded launch company its first European footprint.

The approval ends months of uncertainty. Berlin had been weighing whether to let a supplier of sensitive space technology pass into foreign ownership, and German defence firm Rheinmetall had tabled a competing bid. In the end, Rocket Lab prevailed, and Mynaric's CONDOR Mk3 terminals, already used on Rocket Lab's $1.3 billion Space Development Agency satellite contracts, now give the US-based company in-house optical comms capability.

The deal is significant for Ireland. Galway-based Mbryonics - one of a small number of companies worldwide building optical inter-satellite link terminals at scale - operates in exactly the same market segment that Rocket Lab is now consolidating. Whether that consolidation opens doors or narrows them for European-owned suppliers is something worth watching closely, particularly as the EU's IRIS² constellation and other sovereign programmes move toward procurement.

Manna Air Delivery (Ireland) — $50m Series B - Dublin drone delivery company Manna has raised $50 million (€43m) in a Series B round led by ARK Invest, with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Schooner Capital, Coca-Cola HBC, Molten Ventures and Enterprise Ireland also participating. The raise will fund expansion from 170 to over 570 staff across Ireland and the US, with roles in robotics, software engineering, mechanical engineering, aviation operations and regulatory affairs.

ARK Invest's backing of an Irish drone company suggests external capital is beginning to read Ireland's autonomous tech capability as a serious cluster.

The European Investment Bank approved a €500 million lending envelope last week for SMEs operating in the EU space sector, to be deployed in partnership with the European Space Agency. The facility is structured as a lending programme for existing companies rather than a grant scheme, meaning companies need revenue or near-revenue traction to access it. It represents a significant new pool of institutional debt that hasn't been available to European space SMEs before. Irish companies with ESA contracts or commercial track records should be watching how national channels (including Enterprise Ireland and EIB's Irish counterparts) route access to the facility; details on drawdown routes have not yet been confirmed.

Separately, Luxembourg-based OQ Technology drew €25 million in venture debt from the EIB under InvestEU, to scale its satellite-to-smartphone IoT network. OQ is building low-Earth-orbit connectivity for devices that fall outside traditional mobile coverage - a market with obvious relevance to rural and maritime applications. No Irish angle directly, but the deal is a useful data point on how the EIB is now treating LEO connectivity as a commercial rather than purely research proposition.

Amazon is in talks to acquire satellite telecoms company Globalstar, according to the FT, in a deal valued at around $9bn, a move that would significantly accelerate its Project Kuiper low Earth orbit internet ambitions. Amazon currently has around 180 satellites in orbit against SpaceX's more than 10,000 active Starlink birds, and has already missed a key FCC deployment deadline, seeking a two-year extension on a requirement to launch 1,600 satellites by July. Negotiations are complicated by Apple's 20 per cent stake in Globalstar.

“ESA did not simply enable this mission, ESA powered it. At the heart of the Orion spacecraft, the European Service Module is delivering the life support, propulsion, water and thermal control required to protect the crew through the extremes of deep space and bring them safely around the Moon and back home” - ESA chief Josef Aschbacher.

“Rocket launches are highly complex operations - from safe ground infrastructure to more than 100,000 parts, structures, and systems working together seamlessly. While we're working to return to the pad as quickly as possible, we will not compromise on mission assurance” - Daniel Metzler, CEO and Co-Founder of Isar Aerospace after its recent scrub.

PICTURE: Crowds gather on a Florida beach near Cape Canaveral to give Artemis II and its crew a cheery send-off on April 1.

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

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