History of Electric Propulsion at NASA Glenn Research Center: 1956 to Present

This paper provides a brief overview of the history of electric propulsion (EP) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC). Since the inception of EP technology, GRC has played a pivotal role in developing the technology and transitioning it to flight. Research and development efforts by GRC's employees, grantees, and contractors brought operational EP systems to commercial satellites in the early 1990s and to NASA and other government agency missions starting in the late 1990s. GRC's early construction of unique EP test infrastructure and NASA's and GRC's sustained investments in EP research and development over several decades were strategic in the creation of technologies that continue to greatly benefit the competitiveness and capabilities of U. S. space systems and missions. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)AS.1943-5525.0000304. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.