A US astronaut who has been unable to return from space since his mother died in December will speak to his Irish in-laws today in a live TV link-up with the International Space Station.
Dan Tani (46), who is married to Cork woman Jane Egan and who holidays in Ireland every year, lost his 90-year-old mother Rose on December 19th.
She was killed when the car she was driving collided with a freight train in Lombard, Illinois.
Mr Tani was scheduled to return from space in mid-January but he has been temporarily stuck on board the station since technical problems grounded the space shuttle Atlantis.
Mr Tani launched from the Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Centre in Orlando, Florida, on October 23rd for a mission to the International Space
Station.
Mrs Tani was killed just one day after her son performed a spacewalk to inspect two malfunctioning joints serving the station's power-producing solar panels.
At lunchtime today Dan's in-laws from Cork, Mary and Larry Egan, will gather at the Blackrock Castle Observatory in the city for a 10-minute live link-up with the space station.
Schoolchildren from Cork will be given the opportunity to speak with Mr Tani and a musical and dance performance will also take place involving Irish band Kila.
The €7.5 million Blackrock Castle astronomical research facility was opened last year. It integrates research projects, an interactive astronomy exhibition centre and an educational programme and also houses Ireland's foremost astronomical outreach facility. Today's event, which gets under way at 12.30pm, is being organised in order to show solidarity with Mr Tani following his bereavement.
Mr Tani's wife Jane Egan, who is from Kinsale, Co Cork, and their two daughters, Keiko (3) and Lily (1), flew to the Chicago area from their home in Houston, Texas, and took part in a video conference with him the day after his mother's death.
The couple met and fell in love at the Old Head of Kinsale, when Mr Tani was on a golfing holiday in Cork.
Mr Tani videotaped a message played at his mother's memorial service on December 23rd in the packed First Church of Lombard United Church of Christ, where he attended services.
The loss of a parent while in space is a heartbreaking situation no other American astronaut has experienced. Mrs Tani raised Dan and his siblings alone in Chicago after their father died when he was four.
Family members said that Mrs Tani was "90-years-old going on 50".
She mowed her own lawn until recently and was an active, vibrant member of the local community.
In a brief statement released by Nasa, Mr Tani said he that he was aware that a bereavement was always a possibility while he was in space.
"She [ Rose] was my hero. Living on the space station means that I experience all aspects of life - be they joyous or tragic - while circling the Earth without a convenient way to return.
" Of course, I was aware of this situation before my mission."