Iodine used as a spacecraft propellant for the first time

In what could very well prove to be a major development for space technology, a satellite has used an iodine propellant to alter its orbit around the Earth. This is the first time that iodine has been used as a propellant on a spacecraft.  The iodine thruster was fitted to a commercial research nanosatellite designated SpaceTy Beihangkongshi-1. The thruster was developed by French startup ThrustMe, supported by the European Space Agency. ThrustMe was spun-off from France’s École Polytechnique and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Scientific Research Centre).