The state corporation "Roscosmos" announced today the successful tests of a new engine for small satellites - cubesats. The gas engine, created by "Fakel" Design Bureau, was tested in orbit as part of the "Geoscan-Edelweiss" spacecraft.
The engine was developed by the enterprise with the support of the Innovation Assistance Fund specifically for CubeSat 3U format satellites, and the control board was created by the specialists of the "Geoscan" company. It was necessary to check if such an engine can work in space flight conditions, and find out how its inclusion will affect the orbit of the spacecraft.
The state corporation announced that in the future gas engines will be used to correct the orbit of cubesats and deorbit them after the end of their service life.