Welcome to SpaceTech Ireland — your fast, Irish-first read on the space economy.

This week: Europe belatedly makes re-usable rockets a priority, Maynooth University gets ready for the launch of the MAUVE satellite, Astronaut schools are becoming a thing, and an asteroid visit whets the appetite of a slew of space mining companies.

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October 17, 2025

Europe is making reusable rockets a priority. The European Space Agency's chief says the continent must catch up fast. Irish companies can capitalise on demand for flight-ready parts and software.

Maynooth University is preparing for the MAUVE satellite launch with Blue Skies Space. The small telescope will study how eruptions on distant stars affect planets orbiting them — an example of Irish researchers joining a European spacecraft project.

Astronaut training schools are multiplying. France's Spaceflight Institute is among several organisations building certificate courses for commercial space travel. Meanwhile, a tiny asteroid passed Earth at roughly the same height as the International Space Station, renewing interest in space mining ventures.

Here’s what happened this week, and what it could mean for Irish space startups:

Bernard Liautaud, managing partner at Balderton Capital and one of Europe's best-known technology investors, has warned that military power increasingly depends on space capabilities. Europe risks becoming too reliant on American launch providers and satellite networks.

Balderton has backed space cargo company The Exploration Company and drone maker Quantum Systems. Liautaud told the Financial Times that European firms are "too dependent" on the US, creating a "huge risk". "We need to be more self-sufficient," he said.

Josef Aschbacher, director-general of the European Space Agency, shares the view. Europe must catch up and bring a reusable launcher to market quickly, he said this week.

A series of setbacks, including Russia withdrawing its rockets, left Europe without an independent route to space. That hiatus ended only with the first launch of the much-delayed Ariane 6 rocket in July 2024. But the system is not reusable, unlike SpaceX's Falcon 9 workhorse.

"We have to really catch up and make sure that we come to the market with a reusable launcher relatively fast," Aschbacher told AFP.

Even now, Ariane 6 has launched only twice this year from Kourou in French Guiana — in March and August. In the same period, the reusable Falcon 9 has flown 128 times. Ariane 6 is due to launch next on November 4.

ESA signed a €40m contract this month with Italian rocket company Avio to develop a reusable upper stage within 24 months. It has several other projects in development.

For now, European groups remain unable to launch a rocket into orbit from mainland Europe and face an uphill battle. The main challengers to SpaceX are other American players such as Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin.

Hélène Huby, former Airbus executive who founded reusable space cargo developer The Exploration Company in 2021, told Italian Tech Week that space was a "huge market" thanks to telecommunications, earth imaging and defence. But she warned: "We are quite weak right now in Europe regarding this space-based infrastructure."

Europe’s Launch Efforts: Where We Stand:

The first attempt to launch a rocket into orbit from continental Europe was Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in Norway on March 30. It lifted off but crashed back to Earth after 30 seconds.

To date, all Europe’s successful orbital launches have come from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou in South America.

Russia has long launched into orbit from Plesetsk which sits in the European part of Russia.

Maynooth University is part of the MAUVE science programme, an EU-funded satellite mission that will watch nearby stars to understand how eruptions affect the planets orbiting them.

The Maynooth team is led by Associate Professor Emma Whelan, whose research focuses on young stars and their magnetic activity.

MAUVE carries a small telescope designed for long observation runs. The mission will spend thousands of hours each year watching hundreds of stars repeatedly — the sort of patient astronomy that reveals how stellar systems change over time.

The satellite, built by private company Blue Skies Space, was shipped to the launch site and prepared for flight in September.

It is due to launch into low Earth orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-15 rideshare programme. The launch is currently scheduled for October.

Could ‘astronaut’ be your next job? Commercial space missions are increasing and training providers are multiplying to meet demand.

France’s Spaceflight Institute is building a certificate course for commercial astronauts after a pilot programme in Toulouse this spring, developed with CNES and ISAE-SUPAERO. The entry-level, three-day course costs about 900 euros.

Sierra Space has set up an astronaut training academy at its Human Spaceflight Centre in Florida. Its academy outlines three routes to a career in space: astronauts for commercial stations, employer-sponsored specialists sent to run research or manufacturing in microgravity, and short-stay visitors.

Demand is already visible. NASA has integrated private astronaut missions into its commercial LEO strategy. Axiom Space has flown four crews to the ISS since 2022, including European participants, with stays of roughly two weeks focused on research and education.

In Ireland, the opportunities come in following the route of Europe’s recent private crews. Agencies, universities and companies co-fund seats, then bring the operational know-how back into their organisations.

There is, and will be, work in payload integration for microgravity experiments, mission planning and operations, environmental control and life support, guidance and autonomy, medical protocols, and post-flight data analysis.

If you believe your talent for space lies elsewhere, UCD may have the course for you:

UCD Centre for Space Research: is accepting applications for "Engaging with ESA", an online micro-credential course covering ESA tendering, proposal writing and programme management. The deadline is Monday, Oct 20.

A car-sized asteroid passed Earth a fortnight ago at a height more familiar to human spaceflight than astronomy. Labelled 2025 TF, it crossed over Antarctica early in the morning of October 1, about 428 km above the surface - roughly the altitude of the International Space Station.

It was identified only after the fly-by. Experts say that is not unusual for objects this small, which would almost certainly burn up if they entered the atmosphere.

The flyby is the sort which has whetted the appetites of a slew of asteroid mining companies developing the know-how to capitalise on a largely regulation free zone.

AstroForge is going after metal-rich asteroids.

Its DeepSpace-2 mission, nicknamed Vestri, plans to meet up with a small asteroid in 2026 and touch down on it. The company has already sent a spacecraft into deep space earlier this year to test the technology. The near-term aim is straightforward: prove they can fly close to an asteroid and land on it briefly, all without breaking the bank.

Karman+ is after something different: water.

The company wants to mine ice from asteroids and turn it into fuel for spacecraft, making it possible for missions to travel farther without hauling all their propellant from Earth. Its High Frontier mission, planned for 2027 and backed by a $20m funding round, will test whether a spacecraft can navigate to a small asteroid on its own, map its surface, and dig gently into the rock. If water can be extracted in space, satellites and spacecraft could refuel in orbit rather than returning to Earth.

TransAstra has taken a more unusual approach: an inflatable bag.

It’s large enough to wrap around small asteroids, like a sort of cosmic net. The technology could also help clear up space junk. With fresh NASA funding, the company is now building a bigger version designed to capture asteroids around 10 metres across. (It missed a trick with 2025-TF which is reported to have been only 1-3 metres across). Safely bagging an asteroid is the first step towards studying it up close and, eventually, mining it.

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

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