Mayo woman to make history by becoming Ireland's first astronaut
Ballina woman, Dr Norah Patten.
A Mayo woman will put herself in the Irish space industry history books by becoming Ireland's first astronaut.
Dr Norah Patten, who hails from Ballina, is now living in Dublin and works for a space electronics company named Realtra Space Systems Engineering.
Norah is due to embark on her space journey in 2026 and will be joined by two researchers from the US and Canada.
Their mission, which is being organised by the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), will be to advance scientific knowledge on supporting life in space.
On Norah's website, she said that her interest in space started when she was 11 thanks to a visit to NASA in Cleveland, Ohio.
She studied Aeronautical Engineering and gained a PhD from the University of Limerick, participated in the International Space University (ISU) Space Studies Program (SSP) in 2010, and joined the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences as a citizen scientist in 2017.
Norah states that her "goal" is to fly on a suborbital spaceflight and share her journey to inspire the next generation of engineers, astronauts, innovators and scientists.
