Cork Takes the Heat So DRACO’s Data Can Survive

3 min read · reported by SpaceNews

Mozelos, Portugal, September 2, 2026 – Amorim Cork Solutions is contributing its P50 cork-based thermal protection material to DRACO, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission designed to capture rare in-flight data on how satellites break apart during atmospheric reentry.

Scheduled for launch in 2027, DRACO, short for Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object, will deliberately reenter Earth’s atmosphere and break apart. Around 200 sensors and four cameras will record what happens to the spacecraft throughout the process, generating data that could help improve reentry models and support the development of safer, more sustainable spacecraft.

At the heart of this unusual engineering challenge is a 40 cm survival capsule. While the spacecraft around it is designed to break apart, the capsule must survive long enough to preserve and transmit the mission’s critical scientific data. Its heat shield will use Amorim P50, a cork-based ablative thermal protection material developed for demanding aerospace environments.

Protecting what must survive

During reentry, DRACO will encounter intense thermal and mechanical conditions as the spacecraft progressively breaks apart. Data collected by its sensors and cameras will be processed onboard, with the most valuable information transferred to the survival capsule.

Protecting that capsule is therefore essential to the mission.

The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI), which is responsible for key aspects of the capsule’s design, aerothermodynamics, and thermal protection development and validation, selected Amorim P50 for its heat shield.

P50 is a lightweight, cork-based ablative material designed to provide thermal protection in demanding aerospace applications. Its selection for DRACO builds on approximately 15 years of collaboration between Amorim and VKI in the field of aerothermodynamics and thermal protection.

“DRACO represents a remarkable engineering challenge: designing a spacecraft to break apart while ensuring that the knowledge generated during that process survives,” said Sofia Paixão, Global Technical & Product Manager at Amorim Cork Solutions. “We are proud to see Amorim P50 contributing to that challenge and to a mission that could deepen our understanding of atmospheric reentry and help inform the design of future spacecraft.”

Tested under reentry-like conditions

Ahead of the mission, the capsule’s thermal protection system has undergone experimental validation at VKI.

A half-scale version of the capsule was exposed to plasma flows in VKI’s facilities to reproduce key aspects of the aerothermal environment expected during atmospheric reentry. The tests allowed the team to evaluate the heat shield and overall thermal protection design under reentry-like conditions before progressing toward the full-scale capsule.

“We have extensively tested P50 within the DRACO programme. It is a highly insulating, robust, and predictable ablative material that is readily available on the commercial market,” said Dr. Bernd Helber, Research Expert in Aerothermochemistry at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI).

The DRACO mission is not the first time Amorim P50 has been used by VKI for an experimental reentry spacecraft. The material was previously selected for QARMAN, the QubeSat for Aerothermodynamic Research and Measurements on AblatioN, developed by VKI to collect data during atmospheric reentry.

DRACO marks the next chapter in this long-standing collaboration, bringing cork-based thermal protection technology to a new European mission with an ambitious scientific objective.

Turning destruction into knowledge

Once DRACO begins its final descent, its sensors and cameras will document the spacecraft’s breakup and transfer the most important information to the protected capsule.

The data collected by DRACO is expected to provide valuable insight into how spacecraft structures and materials behave during atmospheric reentry. The findings will help improve reentry models and support ESA’s work on Design for Demise, an approach aimed at designing spacecraft so that they break up more completely during reentry, reducing the risk posed by surviving debris.

The mission contributes to ESA’s broader Zero Debris approach, which aims to significantly reduce the creation of debris in Earth and lunar orbits by 2030.

For Amorim Cork Solutions, DRACO further demonstrates the role cork-based thermal protection materials can play in demanding space applications, combining the natural thermal properties of cork with engineered solutions developed to perform under extreme conditions.

Reported by SpaceNews. Reproduced unedited by Everything Space. View the original →