Astronaut to link up with Irish family from space

A live link between an astronaut on board the International Space Station and his Irish in-laws will be televised tomorrow.

Dan Tani, who is married to Cork woman Jane Egan, will be quizzed by local students visiting Blackrock Castle Observatory, a new science centre in Cork Institute of Technology.

NASA has arranged for their astronaut to celebrate his recent birthday with the youngsters, including his own nephews, and talk about life in deep space.

His wife’s parents – Mary and Larry Egan of Kinsale – will also be able to catch up with their son-in-law, who they claim is so down to earth he once called one of President Mary McAleese’s daughters from the station because she had an interest in space.

“Dan is very at home in Ireland and usually visits three times a year. He loves it,” said Mrs Egan.

“He’s very well known in the area and has called the local pubs in Kinsale - the White Lady and Tap Tavern – to say hello to all his friends there.

“They have pictures of him up in the pub and the whole place follows him.”

The couple met in 1998 when Jane, 34, was working at the Old Head Golf Club in Kinsale and Dan came over to Ireland to play. They wed two years later.

Mrs Egan admitted that she was not impressed when first told her daughter’s new boyfriend was an astronaut – but that was forgotten when they met at a family barbecue.

“The idea of him being an astronaut went out the door,” she said.

“He was just so nice, so normal, and he just became part of the family.

“He was absolutely brilliant and we all fell in love with him.”

The couple now live in Houston and have two daughters, Keiko aged three and 18 month old Lily.

“The children are completely switched in to what he does, Nasa is very family orientated,” continued Mrs Egan.

“Jane has a live link from the space station in to their house and they do video conferences all the time and he calls her.

“He calls us too and we chat to him.”

But his mother-in-law said his job is a roller coaster of emotions.

“When he is going up sitting at at the top of a rocket going off it is frightening,” she said.

“The more you know about it the scarier it gets.

“But it’s also very exciting at times. It’s a real roller coaster ride.”

Mrs Egan said she knew absolutely nothing about space before Tani became part of her family but now finds it incredible, watching Nasa television as often as possible.

The 46-year-old from Chicago took his first 10 day mission into space in 2001. This time he went out on the Discovery Shuttle on October 23, and hopes to be back on home soil by the end of the month.

But his trip of a lifetime was tinged with sadness when he got devastating news in December that his 90-year-old mother Rose was killed in a car accident.

However, tomorrow’s link up with Blackrock Castle will be a celebration for Tani, who has been stuck aboard the station since technical problems grounded the Space Shuttle.

History will be made when a musical piece called 'Song from Earth', written especially for the astronaut by Kila and Cork’s Ger Wolfe, will be beamed direct to the space station.

NASA will later beam the Beatles track 'Across the Universe' directly into deep space to mark the 50th anniversary of NASA’s founding.

Clair McSweeny, from Blackrock Castle Observatory, said the link up was a unique opportunity to showcase Irish culture on a universal scale.

“The event is unlike anything NASA has ever been involved in before,” she added.

The event can be watched live online at 12.30pm on Nasa TV www.nasa.gov/ntv