Thermocatalytic Low Thruster
Glavkosmos
A hydrazine thermocatalytic low-thrust engine used for spacecraft orientation, attitude control, and station keeping.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Mass
- 0.46 kg
- Power
- 3.3 W
- Largest dimension
- 131 mm
- Thrust
- 0.096 N
- Specific impulse
- 206 s
- Data rate
- 50 Mbps
- Design life
- 10.5 years
- Lead time
- 10 months
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Purpose
- Spacecraft orientation, attitude control, and station keeping
- Year of release
- 1994
- Design life
- 10.5 years
- Lead time
- 10 months
- Flight qualification of the product
- Yes
- Brief history of flight qualification
- As part of: S/C of Cosmos series; Meredian series; Spektr-R S/C (launched on 18.07.11); Electro-L No.2 (launched on 11.12.15); S/C of Express series (launched on 29.12.03, 24.06.05, 28.01.09); Yamal-300K S/C (launched on 03.11.12)
- Possibility to adapt the product to customer requirements
- Yes
- Thrust
- (0.548 ... 0.096)/ (0.65 … 0.37) N
- Propellant inlet pressure
- (853..206)/ (1030..780) kPa
- Specific impulse in a continuous mode of operation
- 216..206 s
- Specific impulse in a pulse mode of operation
- (176..200) s
- Life in terms of propellant throughput
- 20/50 kg
- Life in terms of number of cycles
- 130000 cycles
- Power consumption in the preparation mode and in the instant readiness mode
- (3.3 … 4.5) W
- Power consumption in the forced preparation mode (for 3.5 min, up to 5 times)
- (27.0 … 37.0) W
- Overall dimensions
- 131 × 130 × 45 mm
- Mass
- 0.46 kg
- Propellant
- Hydrazine
About
The Thermocatalytic Low Thruster is a hydrazine monopropellant thruster designed for spacecraft orientation, attitude control, and station keeping. It has been in production since 1994, with a guaranteed service life of 10.5 years and an estimated production/delivery time of 10 months (manufacturing lead time excludes 4 months for material procurement and 6 months for procured parts and components). The product can be adapted to customer requirements. The main thruster components include a decomposition chamber with a catalyst element and a nozzle, a propellant injection unit, two small-size solenoid valves that supply propellant to the thruster, and a pressure signaling indicator that monitors thruster startup. A resistive heater and multi-layer insulation (MLI) installed on the thruster chamber ensure the required thermal mode of the thruster. The thruster also has a mounting plate that joins the thruster elements. It operates in both continuous and pulse modes, with life rated in terms of propellant throughput (20/50 kg) and number of cycles (130,000 cycles). The product has flight heritage as part of the Cosmos series spacecraft, Meridian series spacecraft, Spektr-R spacecraft (launched 18.07.11), Electro-L No.2 (launched 11.12.15), Express series spacecraft (launched 29.12.03, 24.06.05, 28.01.09), and Yamal-300K spacecraft (launched 03.11.12).
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.