I rise to speak as the Chair of the all-party group on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to congratulate Dr Rosemary Coogan on being selected for the final stage of her astronaut programme and being awarded her astronaut wings yesterday. It is a remarkable achievement for someone from Northern Ireland to join the European Space Agency's astronaut programme, but it also highlights the importance of the space sector to Northern Ireland.

It was not so long ago that, here in Belfast, we had the UK Space Conference, at which many companies from Northern Ireland demonstrated their ability to work in the space programme. Indeed, some of you might be surprised by the amount of work that is done in Northern Ireland towards the space programme. Work is being done in not only our universities and the Armagh Observatory, but in some of the great companies that we have in Northern Ireland such as Thales, which is heavily involved in the Artemis programme.

We are all proud of everything that Dr Coogan has done. Now that she has joined the astronaut programme and is very likely to fly, I hope to have her here in Parliament Buildings at some stage to talk about the importance of STEM, particularly to our young people — especially our young women — who will see that the study of engineering, science and technology is a great way ahead and a great way forward.

Finally, before I sit down, I will also talk about the new all-party group on aerospace, defence and space that I am setting up. That will be a great opportunity for all of us to encourage those developments here in Northern Ireland.