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

This week: Space appears in Research Ireland's defence challenge for the first time - and it leads the list. Enterprise Ireland took a ministerial delegation to Farnborough and came back with 45 jobs for an Offaly engine plant. ESA put €65m behind a commercially run lunar rover. And in Shetland, RFA has taken its rocket back off the pad days before the launch window opens. Plus a NASA space biology course closing tomorrow night, four funding deadlines and this week's jobs.

Research Ireland opened a second round of its Defence Innovation Challenge on Wednesday, with space-based systems as the first of five challenge areas. Space did not appear anywhere in the 2024 round, whose four challenges were shelter systems, maritime awareness, search and rescue and aeromedical dispatch.

The remaining 2026 areas cover land-based emergency response, defence capability planning, public preparedness and a disruptive ideas stream.

The call asks for systems that use satellite imagery, positioning and communications to monitor land, sea, air and critical infrastructure, and for ways to keep those services running when they come under attack. It names jamming, spoofing, cyberattack and loss of service among the risks, and asks for approaches that maintain continuity of positioning, navigation, timing and communications.

Named areas of interest include geospatial change detection, monitoring of subsea and offshore infrastructure, coastal awareness, and tools that let non-specialists read satellite data. Applicants are also asked to address the legal, ethical and governance questions raised by using space-derived evidence in fast decisions.

The 2024 round was won in February by Sea-Scan, a Trinity team that turns existing subsea telecoms cables into a listening network: pulses of light sent down the fibre pick up the vibrations passing ships make in the water and on the seabed, and machine learning sorts vessels from background noise. The target is dark vessels - ships that switch off the transponder broadcasting their identity and position. UCD's MASH, a rapidly deployable shelter system, was runner-up; the two shared over €1.8m in prize funding.

Ten teams will take up to €220,000 across a four-month concept stage and nine months of seed work, with one winning a €1 million prize. Bids must be led by two PhD-holding researchers at eligible Irish research bodies, with a Defence Forces liaison assigned to funded teams. Companies come in as partners. Applications close at 13:00 on 29 October; information webinar 20 August.

Minister of State Alan Dillon led an Enterprise Ireland trade mission to the Farnborough International Airshow, meeting senior executives from Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Archer Aviation.

The key outcome was Offaly-based Euram Aircraft Engine Centre announcing plans for 45 new high-skilled jobs by 2027 as part of a growth programme driven by international demand.

Enterprise Ireland used the mission to reiterate that Ireland's aerospace, aviation and space sectors together contribute roughly €4.6bn to the economy and support 44,000 jobs.

"Ireland has established itself as a globally recognised centre of excellence in MRO [Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul] and aviation services; advanced aerospace manufacturing and aircraft leasing, with a growing reputation for innovation across emerging technologies including drones, advanced air mobility and the space sector," said Dillon.

Enterprise Ireland's Leo McAdams added: "Enterprise Ireland clients are delivering specialised products, technologies and services across global aerospace, aviation and space supply chains."

ESA signed a €65m contract on 24 July with ispace-EUROPE for MAGPIE (Mission for Advanced Geophysics and Polar Ice Exploration) - Europe's first commercially-led lunar surface rover mission.

The contract covers rover and payload development, manufacture, testing, transport to the lunar surface and surface operations, with MAGPIE now scheduled to fly aboard ispace's Mission 4 lander in 2029.

ispace-EUROPE CEO Julien-Alexandre Lamamy called it a mission that "combines commercial delivery, scientific ambition and international collaboration."

The consortium is led from Luxembourg and includes the Technical University of Munich, the University of Oslo's Centre for Space Sensors and Systems, KP Labs in Poland, the Czech Technical University and the Open University. No Irish partner.

The model is significant for Irish companies. ESA is increasingly buying lunar and deep-space capability as a commercial service from a European prime rather than running the mission in-house. It’s similar to smaller ESA awards Irish companies already compete for (Réaltra's PLATO work, InnaLabs' Ramses gyroscope contract) and a sign that the commercial-service model is scaling up.

As ESA commits more budget to commercially-led missions like this one, Irish suppliers with space-qualified hardware - sensors, radiation monitoring (Varadis), inertial systems (InnaLabs), electronics (Réaltra) - have a growing subcontracting pool to chase, even without a prime role themselves.

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Rocket Factory Augsburg had RFA ONE standing on the pad at SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland, working toward a hot-fire test ahead of a launch window that marine users had been told would open the week of 10 August.

On 28 July, RFA said: "After a successful week of testing RFA One on the pad for the first time, we encountered an issue with the vehicle that requires further investigation," adding that it had "made the decision to de-stack the vehicle in order to investigate and take corrective action where required." No new date has been given. This follows an earlier slip from a hoped-for 1 July window.

Why it matters for Irish companies: RFA ONE would be the first vertical orbital rocket to fly from UK soil - of relevance to Ireland since SUAS Aerospace has spent several years trying to get a west-coast Irish spaceport off the ground, aiming for full operational status by 2027. See SpaceTech Ireland’s 14 May issue

🚀 A European rival to SpaceX is raising at a $2bn valuation. The Exploration Company, the Munich-based start-up building Nyx - a reusable cargo (and eventually crew) capsule pitched as Europe's answer to SpaceX's Dragon - is in talks to raise at least $300m, in part from the EU's Scaleup Europe Fund (managed by EQT), at a valuation north of $2bn, according to FT reporting on 26 July. The company's most recent test flight in mid-2025 reached orbit and survived re-entry before losing contact minutes before splashdown - a partial success it's now trying to convert into Europe's first independent cargo-return capability for the ISS and its commercial successors.

🚀 NASA is accepting applications until Friday for STAR, a free online training course on the science and technology behind biological experiments in space. UCD's Centre for Space Research flagged the call to Irish researchers last week. The course runs from September 2026 to February 2027, with two-hour sessions held weekly. It covers the fundamentals of space biology and the practical work around it. It is aimed at principal investigators, senior researchers and postdoctoral scholars rather than students. Close is 11.59pm US Eastern time on 31 July - just before 5am Irish time on Saturday morning. Details: go.nasa.gov/ApplySTAR26

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ESA Future PNT ITT

ESA's Future Navigation department has issued an Invitation to Tender for in-orbit demonstrators in next-generation positioning, navigation and timing. The call has two technical priorities: quantum sensor technologies (using the quantum properties of atoms to measure position and time with far greater precision than current satellite systems) and machine learning for automation of navigation systems. Open to companies from ESA member states, Ireland included.

Deadline: 7 August 2026. → navisp.esa.int

Horizon Europe EU Space Research Call 2026 (HORIZON-CL4-2026-SPACE-03) — €90.97m total budget, managed by HaDEA. Deadline 3 September 2026, 17:00 Brussels time.

ESA Phi-Lab Ireland Open Call 2026 — Irish Manufacturing Research's ESA Phi-Lab (Mullingar) offers ESA innovation seed funding up to €400,000 for projects under two years, plus mentorship and research infrastructure access. Deadline 8 September 2026.

ESA BASS (Business Applications and Space Solutions) - rolling open calls under the new ACCESS programme umbrella (Kick-Starts up to €75k at 75% funding; proof-of-concept/pilot projects up to €600k). Ireland subscribes via ESA Space Solutions Centre Ireland. Apply via business.esa.int/funding.

PICTURE: The picture shows the 52-metre stainless steel Starship still afloat near its splashdown point on the Indian Ocean following the July 24 launch of Flight 13. It was the first time a Starship upper stage survived re-entry and water impact without exploding or breaking up, and allows experts to better study the impact on the heat shield.

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

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