Rendering of the DRACO breakup mission. Photo: ESA

Deimos won a European Space Agency (ESA) contract for the first phase of a demonstration of a controlled satellite break-up process. 

The award announced Tuesday is a 3 million euro ($3.4 million) deal for the first phase of mission development for DRACO, which stands for Destructive Re-entry Assessment Container Object. The mission’s goal is to demonstrate the break-up process of a spacecraft during re-entry and demonstrate prototyped reentry safety applications. 

This information will help inform new technologies for satellites that break apart more easily upon reentry to the atmosphere. This is in line with ESA’s “Zero Debris” approach. 

The mission is scheduled for launch in 2026 and will use a 150 kg satellite designed and built by Deimos at its facilities in Puertollano, Spain. The satellite will be equipped with an “indestructible pod” to withstand reentry and collect data. 

Holger Krag, ESA head of Space Safety commented: “We need to gain more insight into what happens when satellites burn up in the atmosphere as well as validate our re-entry models. The data collected by DRACO will help guide the development of new technologies to build more demisable space systems by 2030.”

Deimos will lead a consortium including Von Karman Institute in Belgium, Fluid Gravity Engineering, Belstead Research, Vorticity and Dial in the U.K., and Hyperschall Technologie Göttingen from Germany. The full contract is ultimately worth 17 million euros ($19 million).