A thruster is a spacecraft propulsion device used for orbital station-keeping, attitude control, or long-duration, low-thrust acceleration, often as part of a reaction control system.

Jul 12, 2023 · Engineers from NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne are beginning qualification testing on the cutting-edge solar electric propulsion (SEP) thrusters that will change the in-space propulsion game. The culmination of this work will see these innovative thrusters fly on Gateway beginning in 2025, making it the most powerful SEP spacecraft ever flown.

Sep 16, 2024 · Engineers at NASA have successfully fired up a set of thrusters Voyager 1 hasn’t used in decades to solve an issue that could keep the 47-year-old spacecraft from communicating with Earth from ...

May 3, 2024 · Ion thrusters are the most common primary engine powering satellites through orbital maneuvers today. But to travel from low-Earth orbit (LEO) to farther orbits—or even the Moon—requires a...

Sep 10, 2024 · Engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 1 probe have successfully mitigated an issue with the spacecraft’s thrusters, which keep the distant explorer pointed at Earth so that it can receive commands, send engineering data, and provide the unique science data it …

Feb 2, 2025 · The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) stated Feb. 2 that the NVS-02 satellite, launched Jan. 28 (Eastern time), suffered a thruster failure that is keeping the spacecraft from raising its ...

Sep 10, 2024 · Engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 1 probe have successfully mitigated an issue with the spacecraft’s thrusters, which keep the distant explorer pointed at Earth so that it can receive commands, send engineering data, and provide the unique science data it …

May 22, 2024 · Navigators are firing its futuristic-looking electric thrusters, which emit a blue glow, nearly nonstop as the orbiter zips farther into deep space. The spacecraft launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on Oct. 13, 2023.

Jan 5, 2025 · A research team at the University of Virginia is revolutionizing the future of space travel with groundbreaking studies on electric propulsion thrusters. By delving into the behavior of electrons in plasma beams, their work promises to enhance spacecraft efficiency and safety, ensuring that missions like NASA ’s Artemis program can venture ...

Oct 17, 2023 · Ion thrusters use high electric voltages to make a plasma (the fourth state of matter) and spew ions into space. NASA’s Dawn mission used these to get to dwarf planet Ceres, but they’re not the...