Space launch plan: The Blasket Islands could have become the Cape Canaveral of Europe, if a young US scientist's plan for a space launching station in Ireland had materialised.
In 1973, the Government was approached with a proposal to establish a space launching station on Inish na Bró, one of the lesser Blaskets, according to State papers.
A 23-year-old Minnesota scientist, Dr Gary Hudson, contacted the IDA in Chicago and subsequently the US vice- consul, Mr Seán Farrell, with the plan which involved leasing the island and launching rockets into space "at least once a week".
In recent weeks, The Irish Times made contact with Dr Hudson and found he had gone on to become a well-known figure in commercial space in the US.
He is a senior member of the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics and in 1981, he built the first large private launch vehicle developed in the US.
Back in 1973, he told the US vice-consul that the first launch on the Blaskets would cost $10 million. He "would welcome equity participation" by the Irish Government, Mr Farrell wrote in a memo marked "secret" in September, 1973.
The group behind the plan had no capital but envisaged employing a 1,000 strong workforce. A back-up plan involved sea launches from massive pontoons.
Mr Farrell said the scientist believed "that by the year 2000, most of the raw materials used in industry would be obtained directly from the moon".
In correspondence with Government officials, he said it seemed to be "a fairly fantastic scheme".
It later transpired that Dr Hudson had visited Ireland the previous year, telling the IDA he was looking at sites for establishing a factory for medical electronic devices.
During that visit, he said he told local Bord Fáilte representatives in the south-west about his true intentions and got an "enthusiastic" response.
However, the plan got an unenthusiastic response from the Department of Foreign Affairs. An unsigned memo from a Government official advised that "we should not waste too much time" on the proposals.
The official said the plans seemed to be in the realm of science fiction and should not be taken seriously. "Indeed, we should be on our guard lest the whole thing may not be a gigantic leg pull."
However, it was no leg pull as far as Dr Hudson was concerned. He told The Irish Times he did informally explore the project, "but the idea was at least 30 years ahead of its time, and obviously nothing came of it".
He said a number of launch sites had been proposed or developed since then, most visibly, the Ariane launch complex in Kororu and more recently the Alaska Kodiak private commercial launch site.
Dedicated launch facilities were now becoming obsolete "and I would venture that, 30 years from now, most space flights will originate from more or less conventional airfields", he added.
One of the key factors that attracted him to Ireland was the tax breaks offered to overseas companies.
He visited a couple of times "and was very nicely squired around for a day by a tourist authority whose name I now regretfully forget. I still have fond memories of the hospitality I enjoyed."
