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

This week: The bill that would let Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland support dual-use space companies has reached report stage in the Dáil. Irish and British officials have run their first joint exercise simulating an attack on Irish Sea cables, and Ubotica has brought in former Defence Forces chief Vice Admiral Mark Mellett as a board adviser. A Queen's University Belfast team takes its lunar rover to NASA's championship in Florida. Also this week: Réaltra pitches to European investors in Prague, €40 million in disruptive-tech funding opens, ESA launches a call for space-enabled energy projects, and the latest space jobs.

October 1, 2026

The Bill that could make it easier for Enterprise Ireland to support dual-use space companies reached report stage, where TDs consider final amendments before it moves to a final Dáil vote.

The Industrial Development (Amendment) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill would, if enacted, delete Section 8(5) of the Science and Technology Act 1987, which currently requires Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to obtain prior Cabinet approval before engaging in or promoting activity of “primarily military relevance”.

The Government says the change is intended to remove obstacles to supporting Irish companies in defence, security and resilience technologies, specifically citing space domain awareness, cyber defence, maritime security and hybrid-threat monitoring. It says existing export controls and other safeguards would remain unchanged.

Opposition TD Richard Boyd Barrett has argued that removing the requirement for Cabinet approval would weaken oversight and could make it easier for State agencies to support companies involved in military activity. The Government says the measure would help Irish firms compete for European defence and security opportunities, including in space technology, rather than changing Ireland’s military-neutrality policy.

Irish space companies working on satellite surveillance, navigation, communications or maritime monitoring could find it easier to get Enterprise Ireland or IDA backing for dual-use tech, with one less layer of sign-off to get through.

Irish and British officials on Wednesday ran their first joint exercise simulating an attack on the subsea communications cables that cross the Irish Sea.

The scenario, code-named Eastern Pearl, modelled disruption to several cables at once and was run as a tabletop exercise, with no ships involved, by Ireland's Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and its UK counterpart.

It follows a new Irish-British subsea infrastructure framework agreed at the Cork summit in March 2026, alongside an updated defence cooperation agreement. Minister Patrick O'Donovan called it a "key milestone" in co-operation on shared infrastructure.

The exercise comes as Russian activity in European waters increases and sanctioned "shadow fleet" tankers now often sail around Ireland rather than through the English Channel, where the Royal Navy said in March it would start seizing them. Legislation is being drafted to give the Naval Service powers to board such vessels.

Former Irish Defence Forces chief Vice Admiral Mark Mellett has joined Dublin-based Ubotica as a board adviser, as the space-AI company expands its push into maritime surveillance and security. Mellett, who also led the Naval Service, said he will help Ubotica develop its Live Maritime Intelligence capability in Ireland and across Europe.

The appointment gives Ubotica direct operational experience at senior military level as it targets government and security customers. Its system combines satellite imagery, AIS data and other intelligence to identify suspicious or “dark” vessels and uses onboard AI to speed up detections. Ireland and the EU are putting greater emphasis on maritime surveillance and protecting subsea infrastructure.

Ten students from Queen's Propulsion Lab (QPL) at Queen's University Belfast will compete in NASA's International Lunabotics Championship in Florida this month, after they won the inaugural UK competition in June.

This is the first time the championship has been run as an international event. It takes place from 27 to 29 October at the University of Central Florida and its Exolith Lab, which reproduces lunar conditions for testing. Teams must apply NASA's systems engineering methods to design, build and operate a prototype construction rover that can dig up simulated Moon soil, drive over obstacles and use the material to build a wall. QPL has spent the past few months upgrading its existing rover.

It will compete against six teams from the United States, India and Australia, and says it will be the only European entry. Caolán Boyle, QPL's head of robotics, said hundreds of hours had gone into getting the rover ready, and that the team was waiting to see their work "put to the test in the lunar yard".

The trip is funded in part by the Queen's Annual Fund, which pools donations from alumni. Other backers include NI Space, Matrix (the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel) and Thompson Aero Seating. Caterpillar, the event's headline sponsor, is helping to ship the rover to Florida.

🚀 Réaltra pitched to investors in Prague this week at the CASSINI Batch 7 Demo Day, part of the European Commission's annual CASSINI Entrepreneurship Days for space start-ups. CTO Diarmuid Corry presented the Dublin company's avionics on stage. Réaltra is one of 21 companies in the latest batch of the CASSINI Business Accelerator, an EU programme that helps space firms reach market and raise funding. Réaltra last month told SpaceTech Ireland that the event would be its first structured approach to European institutional investors as it seeks finance for its next stage of growth. No funding deal or target has been announced.

Lithuania’s Blackswan Space has raised €2.5 million in seed funding, taking its total funding to €3.2m. The money will accelerate its technology that lets a spacecraft approach and manoeuvre near another one on its own, and an in-orbit demonstration planned for late 2027. Like Réaltra, Blackswan is in CASSINI Batch 7.

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Applications have opened for €40 million in funding under Ireland’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). The scheme backs projects where companies work with other businesses or research organisations to develop new technologies with commercial potential.

It is not a space-specific fund, but it could be relevant to Irish space companies working in areas such as AI, photonics, advanced materials, semiconductors, autonomous systems and sensing.

The deadline for applications is 3 February 2027 at 15:00 Irish time.

ESA's Smart and Resilient Energy Systems call opened on 29 September and closes 27 November. It is looking for space-enabled products addressing electricity-network forecasting, critical-infrastructure monitoring, digital twins, dynamic thermal rating and emergency preparedness. ESA Space Solutions

PICTURE: SpaceX's Starship reached orbit for the first time on 28 September on its 14th flight. All 13 earlier flights stopped short of a full orbit. This time the upper stage released 26 of SpaceX's new, larger Starlink internet satellites, and all of them are reported to have made contact with the ground. One of the ship's engines failed on the way up, and SpaceX said it cut short the time in orbit as a precaution. Neither the booster nor the ship was recovered.

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

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