Aerospace Corp. has developed and tested a small solid rocket motor designed to deorbit cubesats from low Earth orbit (LEO).

The Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) created the rocket motor to help small satellites comply with the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) 2022 rule that requires satellites to deorbit within 5 years of their end of service, says Jerry Fuller, senior engineer specialist in Aerospace Corp.’s Vehicle Design and Innovation Department, at the Small Satellite conference on Aug. 5.

“A lot of cubesats are not very capable in that they don’t have things like sophisticated propulsion systems; they don’t have thrust vector control and things like that,” he says.