Astra Space says it’s made a deal with Tukwila, Wash.-based LeoStella to provide multiple electric propulsion systems for LeoStella’s small satellites, with deliveries due to begin later this year.

Ion thrusters are an amazing spacecraft propulsion technology, providing very high efficiency with relatively little fuel. Yet getting one to produce more thrust than that required to lift a sheet of ...

When it comes to space exploration, large vehicles get most of the press -- but a team on KickStarter wants to build an engine that could power nanoscale satellites on their own journeys of ...

Aerojet has completed manufacture and integration testing of a xenon propellant management system (PMS) for phase one of NASA's evolutionary xenon thruster (NEXT) next-generation ion engine ...

Univity tested its first payload on the rooftop of a CNES facility in France as part of early 5G satellite experiments. Credit: ©CNES/Adrien RIBET, 2025 TAMPA, Fla. — France-based propulsion startup ...

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A spacecraft thruster that relies on iodine has been successfully tested in an orbiting satellite (Nature 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04015-y). The propulsion system is a form of ion drive, which ...