SPT-140
A Hall-effect electric thruster used as the primary propulsion model on NASA's Psyche spacecraft; NASA sources distinguish Fakel EDB thruster manufacture from Maxar power-processing and integration hardware.
Identity
- Aliases
- SPT-140SPT 140
- Domains
- spaceflight
- Identity Level
- model
- Kind
- electric-thruster
- Name
- SPT-140
- Status
- active
Details
- Description
- A Hall-effect electric thruster used as the primary propulsion model on NASA's Psyche spacecraft; NASA sources distinguish Fakel EDB thruster manufacture from Maxar power-processing and integration hardware.
- Electric Specs
- Input Power Kw Max
- 4.5
- Input Power Kw Min
- 0.9
- Thrust NMax
- 0.24
- Propellants
- xenon
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- July 30, 2026 at 19:52:44 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 22, 2026 at 14:37:08 UTC
Other
- Sources
- Accessed Date
- 2026-07-29
- Note
- Identifies SPT-140 as the primary Hall-thruster model for Psyche electric propulsion.
- Publisher
- NASA Technical Reports Server
- Title
- Electric Propulsion for the Psyche Mission: Development Activities and Status
- Accessed Date
- 2026-07-29
- Note
- Identifies Fakel EDB as the SPT-140 thruster producer and distinguishes the thruster from the SSL power-processing subsystem.
- Publisher
- NASA Technical Reports Server
- Title
- The Effects of Background Pressure on SPT-140 Thruster Performance
- Accessed Date
- 2026-07-29
- Note
- Separates Fakel as the SPT-140 thruster manufacturer from Maxar as the power-processing-unit manufacturer.
- Publisher
- NASA Technical Reports Server
- Title
- The NEXT-C Power Processing Unit: Lessons Learned
- Accessed Date
- 2026-07-29
- Note
- Identifies the SPT-140 Hall-effect thruster as the Psyche flight thruster and records Maxar/SSL propulsion hardware context.
- Publisher
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Title
- NASA Glenn Tests Thruster Bound for Metal World
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-14
- Note
- JPL's current Psyche spacecraft reference reports that one of the four Hall thrusters can provide up to 240 millinewtons of thrust during the mission.
- Publisher
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Title
- Psyche Spacecraft
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-22
- Note
- NASA's SPT-140 qualification-model report identifies 0.9–4.5 kW as the power range of interest for the Psyche mission; those bounds are normalized into inputPowerKwMin and inputPowerKwMax.
- Publisher
- NASA Technical Reports Server
- Title
- The Effects of Background Pressure on SPT-140 Thruster Performance at Multiple Power Levels