On March 31, 2026, the embedded computing specialist duagon announced that its high-availability hardware is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in April.
Developed for the Belgian aerospace firm Space Applications Services nv/sa, the system will be integrated into the Columbus module. This hardware, known as a Conduction Cooled Assembly, is designed to manage significant internal data storage and collect scientific information from various onboard systems to be transmitted back to Earth.
Technical Specifications and Modular Design
The system is built on CompactPCI Serial technology, which utilizes a modular card-based architecture. This specific assembly includes the G028 CPU card, high-density SSD storage via the G504 card, and a high-speed industrial Ethernet switch. Each individual card is protected by its own metal housing, allowing the components to be plugged together into a specialized rack. To ensure stability and thermal efficiency, the housings use wedge locks to press against the rack walls, transferring heat directly to the station’s fluid cooling plate system without the need for internal fans.
Reliability in Extreme Environments
For successful operation 400 km above Earth, the hardware must be robust and in-flight replaceable. The assembly is nearly hermetically sealed but includes venting holes to manage pressure changes during potential external depressurization. This design makes the system suitable not only for space travel but also for terrestrial extreme environments like oil drilling rigs or mining operations. While one unit will be deployed to the International Space Station, additional systems will remain on the ground in Belgium and Germany for parallel testing and mission simulation.
The new computing hardware developed by duagon and Space Applications Services is designed to handle the complex and high-volume data streams generated by the European Space Agency (ESA) laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS). This hardware acts as a high-reliability bridge between specialized orbital experiments and researchers on the ground.
Primary Scientific Sources for duagon Hardware
The Columbus module hosts several International Standard Payload Racks (ISPRs), which are essentially miniature, automated laboratories. The duagon Conduction Cooled Assembly (CCA) is specifically tasked with collecting, storing, and transmitting data from these systems to ground-based data centers.
