Irish university students have successfully launched a rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first for an Irish team. It carried a camera which provided images from the rocket's descent.
"This is the first Irish rocket in space," Dublin-born Mr Tony Gannon, education manager at the Kennedy Space Centre, said of yesterday's launch.
The launch was controlled from a blockhouse, with a red button in the middle of a bank of instruments, said Julie Behan from Shanagolden, Co Limerick. She was chosen to push the button.
The 11ft rocket, travelling at up to five times the speed of sound, was powered by an engine that burned for just two seconds and generated an acceleration of 250 times the force of gravity. This sent it to a height of 70 miles in two minutes.
At the apex of the flight, an explosive charge released a camera on a parachute. The camera took 10 minutes to fall into the sea, transmitting data back to the students during the descent and providing views of the coastline of Florida from space.
The students were the first educational team from any country to send a rocket from the Space Centre. They are the first students in the Discover Science programme, a collaboration between Fás, the Kennedy Space Centre and the Florida Space Institute.
Andrew Read is a Media Fellow of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on placement at The Irish Times