NASA Tests Dual Mode Propulsion CubeSat Ahead of Launch

What happened

Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently completed a rigorous series of environmental and physical tests on a new small satellite designed to make spaceflight safer and more efficient. Spacecraft propulsion traditionally relies on volatile fuels and separate, bulky systems for different types of maneuvering in space.

NASA is working to change that paradigm. The ASCENT (Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic) Propulsion Dual Mode mission is a flight demonstration of a spacecraft about the size of a large shoebox.

Nehemiah Williams, the demonstration’s project manager at NASA, prepares to start testing the mission’s flight hardware in a clean room at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This requires multiple fuel tanks and heavy plumbing, which eats up valuable space and weight.

Key facts

• This — requires: multiple fuel tanks and heavy plumbing, which eats up valuable space and weight