Computer expert who made his mark in space exploration

Fred Kennedy, who has died aged 83 at his home in Malahide, Co Dublin, made an important contribution in the complex and challenging world of space exploration.

Working at the forefront of projects designed to extend man’s knowledge of the universe, his achievements would have been more widely known had he been less reluctant to engage in self-promotion.

With his team at the Malahide-based company CAPTEC, he was a leading contractor to the European Space Agency (ESA), for which he carried out numerous assignments over several decades.

The work included the very detailed and complex task of validating the guidance software systems used to direct ESA’s spacecraft from their launching pads on Earth to their destinations in outer space.

The most recent example was seen in the success of the Rosetta/Philae mission. When it completed its extraordinary 10-year journey through the solar system, to rendezvous with a comet in that vast expanse far beyond Mars, the world delighted in the achievement and marvelled at the expertise and ingenuity of those who had made it so successful.

Aside from the Rosetta/Philae mission, various other projects on which the CAPTEC team worked include Hipparcos, the star-mapping space telescope; the ISO infrared space observatory; the SOLO solar observatory mission; the XMM space telescope; the Cassini Huygens mission that landed on Titan (a moon of Jupiter); the Mars and Venus Express missions; and the Bepi Columbo mission to Mercury.

Frederick James Kennedy grew up in Bellaghy in south Co Derry and was proud of his Ulster roots. The first person in his family to benefit from third level education, he graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a first class honours degree in physics and mathematics. He went on to work on leading-edge projects, beginning at Shorts in Belfast, where he worked on the development of aerofoil designs for the first vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

He married Anne Marshall in 1957 and they moved to Montreal, where he worked for a time with Canadair on supersonic aircraft design. In early 1960 they moved to Boston, where he joined the aerospace department of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and worked on the company’s proposal for the Lunar Lander subsequently used on Nasa’s Apollo missions.

He joined IBM in Burlington, New York, where he was engaged in developing the first computerised reservations system for Aer Lingus, a project that was to bring him back to Ireland and to his new home in Malahide in 1963.

Shortly afterwards, he was assigned to IBM’s research laboratory in La Gaude, near Nice, working on the development of the world’s first digital voice and data exchange system. He was especially proud to have received an “Outstanding Contribution Award” in 1968, signed by IBM founder Thomas J Watson.

Strong advocate

In the wake of Ireland’s decision to join the EEC, he became a strong advocate for the country’s participation in the newly-formed ESA. Seeing the opportunities it would offer, he decided to establish CAPTEC. Over the next four decades the company would expand into other areas, including medical imaging.

Some might have seen him as reserved but he was actually an endearing and approachable individual with a droll sense of humour and a quirky outlook. Well into his 80s, he retained the enthusiasm for his subject that helped secure for Ireland an enviable place in the field of space exploration.

He is survived by his widow, Anne, sons Nicky, Jon and Simon and their families.