HPGP High Performance Green Propellant Thruster
Description
Bradford ECAPS (a subsidiary of Bradford Space) is a Swedish aerospace company and world leader in High Performance Green Propellant (HPGP) propulsion systems. Their thrusters use LMP-103S propellant — a water-based ammonium dinitramide (ADN) monopropellant — instead of toxic hydrazine (N2H4). HPGP offers 6–12% greater specific impulse than hydrazine (up to 260 s Isp), significantly reduced toxicity enabling simpler ground operations, and improved storage stability. The ECAPS HPGP thruster family covers outputs from 0.1N (for CubeSats) to 200N (for large spacecraft), making it suitable for attitude control, orbit raising, and station-keeping. HPGP has been flight-proven since 2010 on the Swedish PRISMA satellite and has since flown on NASA's GPIM demonstrator, Planet Labs Doves, and multiple commercial and government satellites. Bradford Space (Netherlands) acquired ECAPS from SSC in 2017 and expanded the product line.