Abstract
A pulsed plasma microthruster system was designed, built, flight qualified, and delivered to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory for installation in the LES-6 satellite. The system was designed to meet the requirements for east-west stationkeeping of the spin stabilized, synchronous orbit satellite. Four valveless pulsed plasma microthrusters using solid Teflon as the propellant are spaced on the satellite periphery. The flight qualification and acceptance program was successful in meeting environmental constraints and indicated that RFI was not a serious problem in the application of the thruster to the communication satellite. East-west stationkeeping was functionally performed in more than 16 months of space operation.
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