UL engineer Dr Norah Patten is hoping to become the first Irish woman in space - and is appealing for votes to help her reach for the stars. Dr Patten, 29, from The Quay, Ballina, is a post-doctoral researcher in the Irish Centre for Composites Research (IComp) at UL and has entered a competition to win a coveted spot on a suborbital flight on board a spaceplane.

Dr Patten graduated from the University of Limerick with first class honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering and has enjoyed a successful career on the back of her academic success. She completed a Ph.D. at the University of Limerick and now works at IComp, having also  lectured in the Mechanical, Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Department (MABE). Dr Patten is the Chair of the Space Management and Business Department for the Space Studies Program at the International Space University.

Speaking about the competition Dr Patten said: “I developed a passion for space at an early stage, this opportunity would really be the realisation of a childhood dream.
Space has always been the career I set my heart on and I have had so many amazing experiences and opportunities over the past number of years. It is just unbelievable to think I could be in with a shot of actually going there.”

The competition is being run by Lynx and it is giving 22 people from across the globe a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the Earth from space. The winners of national vote campaigns around the world will be sent to the Global Space Camp - and only the best will win a place. The Lynx Space Academy was recently launched by Buzz Aldrin and the winners will fly on the Lynx SXC (Space Expedition Corporation) spaceplane. With her extensive experience she hopes that she can convince people to vote for her and rocket her to the top of the international race to space.

Dr Patten first visited NASA when she was just 11-years-old and recently travelled to the Kennedy Space Center as part of the nine-week Space Studies Program run by the International Space University and hosted by NASA and the Florida Institute of Technology. “We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in special tours of the facility - we toured the Vehicle Assembly Building, stood beside the space shuttles Atlantis and Endeavor and had a model rocket launch on Pad 39A,” said Dr Patten.

People can vote for Dr Patten by logging onto the Lynx website at lynxapollo.com (https://www.lynxapollo.com/en_IE/18991/norah-patten) or check out her Facebook campaign page under the title 'Ireland’s First Astronaut'.