NASA is looking for ways to make spaceflight more environmentally-friendly.
A small spacecraft the size of a mini-refrigerator is packed with cutting-edge “green” technology for NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission, or GPIM, which aims to pilot a sustainable and efficient approach to spaceflight.
The mission will test a low toxicity propellant and compatible systems in space for the first time.
This technology could improve the performance of future missions by providing for longer mission durations using less propellant.
In this photo, a Ball Aerospace engineer performs final checks before the spacecraft shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch processing.
GPIM is one of four NASA technology missions aboard the June 2019 SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of the US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Centre’s Space Test Program-2 (STP-2).
How to make space exploration ‘green’
