Running on Ions
16 Dec 2003
(Source: European Space Agency)
ION DRIVE SMASHES 1000 HOURS MILESTONE!
At precisely 20:00 UTC on 11 December 2003 SMART-1 broke through the barrier of 1000 hours of cumulated thrust! The ion engine has kept performing well with a small but steady over performance. The spacecraft is now in its 150th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally.
http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=34386
