Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are putting the Green Propulsion Dual Mode flight hardware through critical pre-launch testing. The mission, a 6-U CubeSat, will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind integrated propulsion system that uses a single, non-toxic "green" propellant called ASCENT to perform both high-thrust and low-thrust maneuvers in space. These behind-the-scenes photos capture the team conducting rigorous physical and environmental tests inside the center’s Small Spacecraft Servicing and Integration Lab to ensure the spacecraft is ready for the extreme environment of low Earth orbit.

Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are putting the Green Propulsion Dual Mode flight hardware through critical pre-launch testing. The mission, a 6-U CubeSat, will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind integrated propulsion system that uses a single, non-toxic "green" propellant called ASCENT to perform both high-thrust and low-thrust maneuvers in space. These behind-the-scenes photos capture the team conducting rigorous physical and environmental tests inside the center’s Small Spacecraft Servicing and Integration Lab to ensure the spacecraft is ready for the extreme environment of low Earth orbit.

Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are putting the Green Propulsion Dual Mode flight hardware through critical pre-launch testing. The mission, a 6-U CubeSat, will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind integrated propulsion system that uses a single, non-toxic "green" propellant called ASCENT to perform both high-thrust and low-thrust maneuvers in space. These behind-the-scenes photos capture the team conducting rigorous physical and environmental tests inside the center’s Small Spacecraft Servicing and Integration Lab to ensure the spacecraft is ready for the extreme environment of low Earth orbit.

Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are putting the Green Propulsion Dual Mode flight hardware through critical pre-launch testing. The mission, a 6-U CubeSat, will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind integrated propulsion system that uses a single, non-toxic "green" propellant called ASCENT to perform both high-thrust and low-thrust maneuvers in space. These behind-the-scenes photos capture the team conducting rigorous physical and environmental tests inside the center’s Small Spacecraft Servicing and Integration Lab to ensure the spacecraft is ready for the extreme environment of low Earth orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying three NASA-supported small spacecraft launched at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, as part of the company’s Transporter-18 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat, the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) CubeSat, and the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission will demonstrate new propulsion technologies, study how galactic dust and high-energy radiation move through galaxies, and advance capabilities for inspecting inactive satellites.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying three NASA-supported small spacecraft launched at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, as part of the company’s Transporter-18 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat, the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) CubeSat, and the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission will demonstrate new propulsion technologies, study how galactic dust and high-energy radiation move through galaxies, and advance capabilities for inspecting inactive satellites.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying three NASA-supported small spacecraft launched at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, as part of the company’s Transporter-18 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat, the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) CubeSat, and the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission will demonstrate new propulsion technologies, study how galactic dust and high-energy radiation move through galaxies, and advance capabilities for inspecting inactive satellites.

Three NASA-supported small spacecraft, shown along with many commercial payloads, before being encapsulated in a SpaceX Falcon 9. The rocket launched the payloads into low-Earth orbit at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, as part of the company’s Transporter-18 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat, the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) CubeSat, and the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission will demonstrate new propulsion technologies, study how galactic dust and high-energy radiation move through galaxies, and advance capabilities for inspecting inactive satellites.

Three NASA-supported small spacecraft, shown along with many commercial payloads, before being encapsulated in a SpaceX Falcon 9. The rocket launched the payloads into low-Earth orbit at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, as part of the company’s Transporter-18 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat, the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) CubeSat, and the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission will demonstrate new propulsion technologies, study how galactic dust and high-energy radiation move through galaxies, and advance capabilities for inspecting inactive satellites.