Abstract
The first flight unit of the 200 W class Quad Confinement Thruster will be demonstrated in orbit on the SSTL NovaSAR spacecraft. Key preparatory activities have involved extensive ground testing in order to identify the operational and performance envelopes of the thruster over a broad range of test conditions with the ultimate aim of accurately predicting the in-space behavior. In particular, experimental campaigns have been carried out at the Surrey Space Centre and ESA Propulsion Laboratory at ESA-ESTEC in the effort to determine vacuum facility effects on the measured parameters through a critical comparison of the results obtained in the different laboratories.