Boora Bog in Co Offaly failed to make it into space exploration history yesterday evening when an attempt to launch a liquid-fuelled rocket in Ireland failed.
A small step for mankind that would have secured Boora its place in the history books failed at 4.37 p.m. while a cuckoo sang merrily not far from the launch-pad in the bog.
The attempt to make history began well when a group of students from Limerick University arrived at the site near Kilcormac, bringing with them the 61/2ft rocket in three cars, the result of two years' work.
They were accompanied by a man called Houston who had an American accent and looked as if he knew what he was doing, and Niall O'Byrnes, of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. There were also a television cameraman, three photographers, three reporters and a few very worried Bord na Mona executives who feared that the bog could go up in flames if the event went wrong.
Boora was chosen because it is one of the few land sites in Ireland which does not have housing within 1,000 metres, if you discount the cuckoo who does not even build her own. She sang all through the preparatory work as the students assembled the rocket, filling it with crushed ice to create pressure to compress a hydrogen peroxide and kerosene mix.
In theory, this mixture should have been electronically ignited by a flare which should have sent the rocket 5,000 feet into the Offaly skies at 264 metres a second and created history. The rocket should then have been parachuted gently to the ground and the payload, computer sensors to record the event, recovered.
After a late start, the ice failed to deliver the pressure necessary for blast-off, and the first attempt was aborted minutes before ignition.
Finally, just a short time before the insurance cover was due to run out - and that cost a cool £5,000 - and before the permission given by air traffic control to divert air traffic, the countdown started.
Unfortunately, the flare failed to ignite the mix, which should have burned for 17 seconds, and the rocket failed to lift off the ground.
Niall O'Byrne and his colleagues from Limerick were "very disappointed", but like all good scientists they promised to try again as soon as possible. They quoted the Russian aeronautical engineer, Tsiolkovsky: "What is impossible today becomes possible tomorrow".