Reconfigurable computing based on field-programmable logic offers exciting new options to the traditional system design space, yet has still to prove itself as a means of delivering performance improvement on the desktop. It seems that apparent speed-ups require much design effort, and can then be challenged by fast microprocessors or eclipsed by current computer system architectures. In this paper, a challenging application domain is investigated — computing on a spacecraft. Here, the environment is somewhat different from the typical desktop, in that real-time constraints and power consumption constraints suggest the use of circuitry rather than programs, and the lack of physical access demands configurability of the circuitry. This application domain is of genuine contemporary interest, and the paper explains how the authors propose to apply some of their earlier reconfigurable computing research, aiming at real system improvements.