Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ad Astra tests world's most powerful ion engine

From David Shiga
New Scientist-Space

"Since 2005, the Ad Astra Rocket Company of Webster, Texas, has been working to perfect a type of engine it calls VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket)."

"Now, the company has run such an engine at full power for the first time. On Wednesday, it ran its VX-200 engine at 201 kilowatts in a vacuum chamber in Houston, passing the 200-kilowatt mark for the first time."

"It's the most powerful plasma rocket in the world right now," says Franklin Chang-Diaz, the former NASA astronaut who heads the company."

Read the story, HERE.

No comments: