
A team led by NASA and Ball Aerospace [BLL] seeks to demonstrate and test a high-performance, non-toxic “green” spacecraft propellant on orbit with a goal of launching it into space by October 2015. The propellant, a Hydroxyl Ammonium Nitrate (HAN) fuel/oxidizer blend designated AF-M315E by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), offers 50 percent better performance than hydrazine, a traditional satellite propellant that is also extremely toxic, according to Ball Principal Investigator for GPIM Chris McLean, who is leading the…