By Michelle Crawley
THE father of a Killucan man who was at the heart of last week’s major breakthrough for human exploration of space says that he is proud of his son and the work he is doing with the European Space Agency.
Laurence O’Rourke Snr, Riverstown, Killucan, told Topic this week that his son, of the same name, has been working on the mission to land a probe – the Philae Lander – on a comet over 500 million kilometres from Earth to obtain samples that will furnish scientists with more information about how planets are formed, since 2004, as he proudly took out a copy of Astrononmy Ireland with his son’s picture on the front cover.
Laurence Jnr, who jointly led the science operations team for the Rosetta mission with his colleague, Michael Kuppers, travelled to the European Space Agency’s operation centre at Darmstadt, Germany last week for the landing, which albeit bumpy, was successful, providing them with treasure troves of data, and has had a busy week speaking to the world’s media about the major space exploration breakthrough.
PAST ACHIEVEMENTS
However, the Killucan native, who lives in Madrid, where he works for the European Space Agency at the European Space and Astronomy Centre, is no stranger to space exploration breakthroughs, having played a major role in the development of a Teamsat satellite which was launched by the Ariane-5 Rocket in the late 90s (O’Rourke even got he opportunity to be present at the rocket launch) as well as working on Envisat, the Earth’s observation satellite which launched in 2002 and continuously monitored the Earth for ten years, sending back spectacular images of our planet. His father, Laurence revealed that there was a buzz in the house last Wednesday morning, 12 November, when RTÉ and the national press took interest in the Westmeath man’s role in the Rosetta mission after Lander Philae finally made its descent on Comet 67P after over 10 years of space travel. “My son had lots of pictures on his phone and he showed them to me. We sat down and watched Laurence on the Six One and nine o’clock news on the TV,” he recalled proudly.
LIFELONG INTEREST
Indeed while most of Ireland woke up to hear the news of an Irishman’s involvement with the comet landing, the world of space exploration isn’t something new for the O’Rourke family, as Laurence has a lifelong interest and has been working in the field of space exploration since finishing university in the mid 90s with a BSC degree from NUI Maynooth in physics and maths, and a masters in microelectronic engineering from UCC.
Laurence, one of eight children, grew up in Killucan, and attended St. Joseph’s NS in Rathwire, before completing secondary education in Garbally College in Ballinasloe, Galway.
Laurence, who has a twin brother, Tony, who works as a teacher at Mercy Secondary School in Ballymahon and lives in the Downs, just outside of Mullingar, makes regular trips back to Westmeath to visit family with his wife, Cristina and children, David (9) and Paulina (5) and is planning a trip back home in the coming weeks. No doubt he will receive a rapturous reception from his family and friends at home on his arrival!
