Dr Norah Patten

Aeronautical Engineer and Bioastronautics Researcher (IIAS Astronaut 003)
Biography
Dr. Norah Patten has been on a mission since the age of 11 to become Ireland’s first person in space.Recently that dream became a reality Virgin Galactic proudly announced that she had been chosen as one of three astronauts to take part in a new research flight contract with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS). This mission, anticipated to take place within the first year of commercial service aboard the new Delta spaceships, marks our second research collaboration with IIAS.
She is passionate about using her experience to encourage both young and old to shoot for the stars. Norah is an excellent communicator who has shared her inspiring lifelong journey on national television and radio, and in numerous interviews and keynote speeches in which her warmth and her passion for science shine through. Her determination and enthusiasm leave a lasting impression.
Norah grew up in the west of Ireland, but a family trip to NASA in Cleveland aged 11 became the start of a lifelong dream to travel to space. Today she is a faculty member at the International Space University, and in 2017 became Ireland’s first citizen scientist-astronaut candidate with Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere).
Norah has participated in several citizen science campaigns including microgravity research flight, spacesuit testing and evaluation, high-g flights and spacecraft egress. In 2019, she released her children’s book Shooting for the Stars (O’Brien Press), which won An Post Children’s Book of the Year (senior category).
Norah Patten
Through a partnership with U.S. company NanoRacks, the leading provider of commercial access to space, Norah initiated and managed ‘The Only Way is Up’ project, which launched Ireland’s first student experiment to the International Space Station in 2014. She also participated in the International Space University Space Studies Program in 2010, holds a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Limerick and has industrial experience from The Boeing Company and Bells Labs Alcatel Lucent.
Some of the clients that have booked Norah recently include Vodafone, Datalex, Pfizer and Ernst & Young.
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