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ThrustMe has announced that the first propulsive operations have been conducted, and this milestone occurring just 15 days after the successful launch of the first ever, iodine-propelled smallsat.

BREMEN, Germany – ThrustMe reported success in initial on-orbit testing of an iodine-fueled cubesat thruster at the Space Tech Expo Europe here.

“It all operates as expected but we cannot give you data on the performance because we have just thrusted a little bit,” ThrustMe CEO Ane Aanesland told SpaceNews.

A privately-owned Chinese satellite company founded in 2016 is expanding its product line as it continues in-orbit technology demonstrations. The firm, with 70 employees working in Changsha and Beijing, has nine missions and 15 satellites in orbit. Feng Yang, CEO and founder, talked with SpaceNews about his plans for small synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites and the origins of the company at the Space Tech Expo Europe.

Après avoir dirigé l’équipe de recherche Plasma Froid du Laboratoire de Physique au CNRS, Ane Aanesland a décidé de passer du monde de la recherche à celui de l’entrepreneuriat. En lançant ThrustMe, la chercheuse d’origine norvégienne, veut rendre l’industrie spatiale « durable ». Portrait d’une chercheuse-entrepreneure de la Deeptech.

Cubesats are becoming more and more capable — once considered a useful “toy” to educate aerospace engineers, they are now widely used for scientific research and commercial applications.

In the last decade or so, industries around the world have experienced unprecedented disruption due to advances in computing and information technology. This is also true for the space industry and, today, commercial opportunities and easier access are allowing a democratisation of space. The authors explain the role of smallsat propulsion systems in this disruptive era.