{"id":5618,"date":"2012-11-08T16:06:50","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T16:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/?p=5618"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:31:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:31:27","slug":"boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-the-name-of-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/stories\/boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-the-name-of-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Boom! NASA to demolish spacecraft in the name of science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Work is underway to create a spacecraft that won&#8217;t be rocketed into outer space but will be purposely destroyed on the ground.\u00a0A University of Florida team led by Gator Engineering associate professor Norm Fitz-Coy is designing and fabricating DebriSat for its eventual demise.<\/p>\n<p>DebriSat is a 110-pound satellite that&#8217;s a double for a modern low-Earth orbit spacecraft in terms of its components, materials used, and fabrication procedures. But once fabricated and tested, DebriSat is doomed.<\/p>\n<p>The spacecraft will be the target of a future hypervelocity impact experiment to examine the physical characteristics of\u00a0debris created when two satellites collide.<\/p>\n<p>NASA and the Air Force&#8217;s Space and Missile Systems Center are co-sponsors of DebriSat. The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston is leading the effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read the full Fox News article:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/science\/2012\/11\/06\/boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-name-science\/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=t.co#ixzz2BeDe0Y00\">http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/science\/2012\/11\/06\/boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-name-science\/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=t.co<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Work is underway to create a spacecraft that won&#8217;t be rocketed into outer space but will be purposely destroyed on the ground.\u00a0A University of Florida team led by Gator Engineering associate professor Norm Fitz-Coy is designing and fabricating DebriSat for its eventual demise. DebriSat is a 110-pound satellite that&#8217;s a double for a modern low-Earth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-templates\/single-sidebar-none.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Boom! NASA to demolish spacecraft in the name of science - News from Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/stories\/boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-the-name-of-science\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boom! NASA to demolish spacecraft in the name of science - News from Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Work is underway to create a spacecraft that won&#8217;t be rocketed into outer space but will be purposely destroyed on the ground.\u00a0A University of Florida team led by Gator Engineering associate professor Norm Fitz-Coy is designing and fabricating DebriSat for its eventual demise. DebriSat is a 110-pound satellite that&#8217;s a double for a modern low-Earth [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/stories\/boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-the-name-of-science\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News from Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UFWertheim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-08T16:06:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-11T17:31:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tehranipoor,Maryam\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ufwertheim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ufwertheim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tehranipoor,Maryam\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eng.ufl.edu\\\/news\\\/stories\\\/boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-the-name-of-science\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eng.ufl.edu\\\/news\\\/stories\\\/boom-nasa-to-demolish-spacecraft-in-the-name-of-science\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tehranipoor,Maryam\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eng.ufl.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78c848a15749ce5dfed2e25822445bc4\"},\"headline\":\"Boom! 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