A device for holding and deploying apparatus for use in space includes a fixed body and a movable body coaxially connected to each other through balls displaceable from a retention position to a release position, and a shape memory alloy actuator remote-controllable to displace the balls from the retention position to the release position and the ensuing separation of the moveable body from the fixed body under the action of axial thrust elastic means. The shape memory alloy actuator consists of a torsionally-deformable bar.