ESA to Crash Draco Satellite for Research

In 2027, the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to crash a satellite on purpose to study how objects reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. The mission will use a small spacecraft called Draco, which will descend and burn up over a short 12-hour mission.

Draco weighs around 150–200 kg and looks like a washing machine. It is being sent on a “suicide mission” to gather scientific data about satellite reentry, a topic that remains poorly understood even after 70 years of space activity.

Why crash a satellite?
Nearly 10,000 objects have reentered Earth’s atmosphere in an uncontrolled way, and ESA wants to learn more to make future spacecraft safer.

Draco was built by Deimos Space for under €3 million. It has a 40 cm indestructible capsule that carries 200 sensors, and four cameras will record heat, strain, and pressure as the spacecraft breaks apart.

According to Holger Krag, ESA’s reentry expert, studying reentries like this is important to design safer satellites and manage the growing problem of space debris.