The spacecraft was originally booked to fly on NASA's Artemis 1 mission.
The SmallSat will be the first satellite to use a new type of propellant: a more environmentally friendly monopropellant called Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic that uses a catalyst rather than an oxidizer to burn. ASCENT is safer to store and transport than the more commonly used propellant hydrazine, which is extremely toxic to humans and can cause severe damage to the body.
"This is an exciting time for lunar exploration," Roger Hunter, Small Spacecraft Technology program manager at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said in the statement."The launch of Lunar Flashlight, along with the many small satellite missions aboard , may form the foundations for science discoveries as well as support future missions to the moon's surface."
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