NASA Manifests Shoebox Satellite to Flight-Test Green Dual-Mode Propulsion

NASA has manifested a small spacecraft called GPDM, for Green Propulsion Dual Mode, on an upcoming SpaceX rideshare mission to demonstrate a low-toxicity propellant in orbit. The shoebox-sized satellite will spend nine months validating a propulsion system that could offer an alternative to hydrazine for small satellites.

The propellant at the center of the demonstration has been studied at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for at least a decade. The GPDM mission moves that long research effort from the laboratory toward flight qualification, testing a dual-mode propulsion system that can operate on the same green propellant.

The spacecraft is compact, roughly the size of a shoebox, and will fly as a payload aboard a SpaceX rideshare launch. The nine-month on-orbit campaign is managed out of Marshall Space Flight Center. The core technology under test is a dual-mode propulsion system capable of running on a single low-toxicity propellant, an approach intended to replace hydrazine, which is highly toxic and expensive to handle.

That NASA is still flight-proving a propellant it has studied for more than ten years underlines how slowly propulsion technology moves from lab to orbit. Low-toxicity propellants promise to replace hydrazine, and a successful on-orbit demonstration could reshape how small satellites are fueled.

If GPDM performs as intended, the next generation of smallsats could move away from one of the most hazardous chemicals in the business. The upcoming SpaceX rideshare mission carrying GPDM is the next milestone to watch, followed by the nine-month demonstration period that will determine whether the green propellant and its dual-mode system perform in orbit.