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

This week: Irish space companies are pushing into new markets. Dublin's Ubotica heads to a major Gulf defence expo with flight-proven satellite AI, while Proveye lands a commercial partnership with the world's largest forage seed company. Cork's Tyndall wrapped up years of photonics engineering for ESA's LISA gravitational wave mission, and hiring continues across the sector with Mbryonics, InnaLabs, and Réaltra all seeking engineers.

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Dublin-based Ubotica Technologies is attending the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX) in Qatar next week.

Ubotica’s attendance at DIMDEX is a strategic pivot Irish space companies will be monitoring: government and defence customers represent 48% of the global commercial satellite imagery market, making it the largest single end-user segment.

Maritime surveillance alone is projected to reach $42.7 billion globally by 2033, growing 6.9% annually, while the broader defence geospatial intelligence market is set to expand from $148 billion in 2026 to $218 billion by 2030.

Gulf states are accelerating investment in defence technology localisation - the Saudis are aiming to source 50% of defence spending domestically by 2030 - creating opportunities for foreign companies like Ubotica to establish local partnerships and manufacturing operations rather than selling from Ireland alone.

The UAE is already deploying AI-powered satellite maritime tracking systems across its ports and territorial waters, signalling immediate demand for specialist services.

For an Irish company better known in space circles for pushing “edge” computing into orbit, the trip is a clear signal of where it sees the next tranche of demand: defence and maritime surveillance.

DIMDEX is one of the Gulf’s flagship defence gatherings, organised and hosted by the Qatari armed forces and focused on maritime defence and security. It also draws in suppliers and delegations across land and air systems.

The expo runs at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha and markets itself as a major regional shop window for hardware, sensors and software aimed at naval forces and border agencies.

Ubotica’s pitch, in plain terms, is to do more of the “thinking” on the satellite itself. Instead of downlinking vast amounts of raw imagery for processing on the ground, onboard software can pick out objects or patterns first, then transmit only the most useful data. In security work, where time and bandwidth are often the constraints, that promise of faster, lighter decision-making is part of the appeal.

“We’re excited to connect with the global maritime defence and security community and dive into what’s next for maritime operations and SPACE:AI”, the company said on Instagram.

Ubotica has been building its case around in-orbit demonstrations, including hardware flown on Apex’s Aries SN1 satellite mission, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare in March 2024, which Ubotica has described as a step towards real-time, on-satellite analysis.

NovaUCD agri-tech company Proveye has secured a commercial partnership with DLF, the world's leading forage seed company.

Proveye uses satellite and drone imagery combined with AI to deliver precision variable rate fertiliser recommendations. The company is preparing to launch its ProvVari platform in Ireland during Q1 2026, following European Space Agency Spark Funding awarded in November 2025.

DLF will integrate Proveye's satellite-powered grassland management platform into its "Connecting to Grow" strategy, giving the Irish company access to DLF's extensive farmer networks across Ireland and international markets.

"This partnership is another strong signal of market adoption for our technology," said Jerome O'Connell, Proveye CEO. "It validates our model and accelerates our path toward scaling recurring revenue across national and international markets."

The announcement follows Proveye's November partnership with Cork Grassland Services to deploy its ProvGrass remote sensing platform across dairy and beef farming operations.

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🚀 A startup backed by Nvidia and YCombinator plans to open the first lunar hotel by 2032. The venture will begin with inflatable habitat technology before mining lunar regolith to construct a permanent pressurised structure for commercial space tourism. The company, called GRU, will build the larger habitat directly from lunar soil, eliminating the cost of transporting building materials from Earth.

🚀 The European Union Agency for the Space Programme will run a free virtual event Jan 19-23 showcasing AI applications in space downstream markets. Five themed sessions cover crisis management, environmental tools, mobility, and municipal applications. EUSPA-funded Horizon Europe and Fundamental Elements projects will present their work with Q&A sessions. Register at euspa.europa.eu.

🚀 Cork's Tyndall will more than double in size under a €100 million, three-year expansion funded through the new €750 million Inspire research infrastructure programme. Tyndall will add laboratories and research capacity for AI, quantum computing and advanced materials work, supporting Ireland's Silicon Island semiconductor strategy and EU Chips Act commitments.

Upcoming launches:

Upcoming launches (not including routine SpaceX missions)

Jan 17: Isar Aerospace - Spectrum – Flight Two – Andøya, Norway

Jan 17: Galactic Energy - Ceres 2 – Demo Flight – Jiuquan, China
Jan 19: CASC - Long March 12 (Unknown payload) – Wenchang, China
Jan 20: Chinarocket - Jielong 3 (Unknown payload) – Haiyang (sea launch), China
Jan 21: Blue Origin - New Shepard NS-38 – West Texas, USA (suborbital)

“They’ll be joyful, wistful, unsteady and tired as they readapt to gravity and Earth smells and crowds. The slowest thing to recover will be bone density - about 15 months to get back to normal. A voyage completed - of danger, discovery and furthering the edge of our human existence.” - Astronaut Chris Hadfield on Crew-11’s return following the first ever medical evacuation from the space station.

“We want to make Star Trek real. We want to make Starfleet Academy real. So that it’s not always science fiction, but one day, the science fiction turns to science fact. And we have spaceships going through space - big spaceships - with people going to other planets, going to the Moon, and ultimately going beyond our star system to other star systems where we may meet aliens, or discover long-deal alien civilizations. I don’t know, but we want to go.” - Elon Musk on the purpose of Space X speaking at the Pentagon.

Until next week...

SpaceTech Ireland is the only newsletter focusing exclusively on Ireland's space sector opportunities.

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