Laurence O'Rourke (ESA) Galway Talk Dec 21st

We are delighted to announce a free public lecture by Laurence O'Rourke from the European Space Agency on in the Westwood House Hotel on Monday December 21st @7.30pm entitled "Rosetta the Comet Chaser; Up Close and Personal"

Just over a year ago the whole world watched as the Rosetta Space Probe successfully landed the Philae lander onto comet 67/P Churyumov–Gerasimenko, marking the first soft-landing ever on such a body. Galway Astronomy Club are delighted to announce that the operation's engineer for that mission; Westmeath man Laurence O'Rourke, has agreed to deliver a special Christmas talk to the Club in which he will recount the story of that amazing mission; from its launch in March 2004 to its flyby of Mars and its historical encounter with the Comet.

Laurence is a native of Mullingar and graduate of NUI Maynooth and UCC. He has been working with the European Space Agency on space missions since 1996, including the first launch of the Arianne 5 system in 1997, the Herschel Space Telescope and of course the Rosetta Mission.

The talk is free and open to all, and will take place at 7.30 pm on Monday the 21st Dec at the Westwood House Hotel. See you there!

www.facebook.com/events/490134997778377/

Absolutely stunning talk by Laurence ORourke tonight in Galway about Rosetta and the landing on Comet 67P. Over 90 people were in attendance making it the biggest club meeting this year although a few others came close. Some amazing graphics, simulations and photos from the orbiting spacecraft and he let us in on a plan for Philae if they can make contact on January 10th that as not been made public yet.

Nice to see some visitors up from Kerry Astronomy Club, thee also. A big thanks from the club to to Dave Grennan who imaged "Asteroid 9624 O'Rourke" last night for us and with it in hand we framed the image and presented it to Laurence after his talk.

Photos at www.facebook.com/GalwayAstrofest/

Ronan Newman