Tags: Artificialsatellite, Satellite.
SERT-1 (Space Electric Rocket Test) was a NASA probe used to test electrostatic ion thruster design and was built by NASA’s Lewis Research Center (now NASA Glenn). SERT-1 was the first spacecraft to utilize ion engine design.. It was launched on July 20 1964 on a Scout rocket. It carried two electric propulsion engines; of the two the first an electron-bombardment ion engine (Kaufman ion thruster) was run for a total of 31 minutes and 16 seconds.
