This paper describes the design, development and performance of the engineering model double adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (dADR) built and tested under contract to the European Space Agency for its former mission XEUS (now IXO). The dADR operates from a 4 K bath and has a measured recycle and hold time (with a parasitic load of 2.34 μW) at 50 mK of 15 h and 10 h, respectively. It is shown that the performance can be significantly improved by operating from a lower bath temperature and replacing the current heat switches with tungsten magnetoresistive (MR) heat switches, which significantly reduce the parasitic heat load. Performing the latter gives an anticipated recycle and hold time of 2 and 29 h (with a 1 μW applied heat load in addition to the parasitic load), respectively. Such improved performance allows for a reduction in mass of the dADR from 32 kg to 10 kg by operating from a 2.5 K bath (which could be reduced further by optimising the magnet design). Ultimately, continuous operation could be achieved by linking two dADRs to a common detector stage and operating them alternately. Based on this design the mass of the continuous ADR is estimated to be about 4.5 kg.