Ireland touted as 'ideal launching site' for new spaceport

'The UK is now starting to set up spaceports, but they are now outside the EU,' said Retired Brigadier General Peter O’Halloran. 'Ireland is ideal as a launching site.' Picture: Shane O'Neill, SON Photographic

Ireland is an “ideal launching site” for a spaceport and it is of “paramount importance” that the State invest in the area given EU efforts to build up its own defence of space, a former senior army officer has said.

Retired Brigadier General Peter O’Halloran said commercial companies are looking at remote locations along the south and west coast of Ireland as possible sites for a launchpad.

The defence and security of space has been added to traditional responsibilities of defending land, air, sea, and cyber. Last March, the European Commission issued a formal statement on a European Space Strategy for Security and Defence.

It said space systems and services — including satellites and ground-based infrastructure — are “crucial” for the functioning of society and economy, as well as security and defence.

With the recent "intensification" of threats to security, the EU has said it needs to take action “to protect its space assets, defend its interests, deter hostile activities in space, and strengthen its strategic posture and autonomy”.

Mr O’Halloran, who is now vice chairman of Irish space company SUAS Aerospace, said space vehicles could be launched from Ireland for telecommunications, environmental monitoring, or medical experiments. 

Addressing the Azure Forum for Contemporary Security Strategy, he said the EU is 10 years behind the “major space players” — the US, China, Russia, Japan, and India.

However, he said the EU space strategy will be a “game-changer” in the future of military space activities with a common view for EU member states, with “enormous economic opportunity”.

The former director of the Communications and Information Services Corps in the Defence Forces said the EU predicts that just two space markets — earth observation and global navigation satellite systems — will grow by up 150% to €500bn per year in 2031.

He later told the Irish Examiner: “There are loads of companies in Europe that need to have a facility of a launch pad, or a spaceport, and by and large they are all heading towards the Azores. The UK is now starting to set up spaceports, but they are now outside the EU. Ireland is ideal as a launching site.”

He said studies have shown that such a facility is viable in Ireland, but that it “needs financial backing and becomes something that is also supported by the State”.

He said a spaceport must have a 2km radius free of built-up areas, and would fire out over water.