About Space Only's video: NEXT-C Ion Engine Installation on DART

APL, which manages and is building NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), led the installation of NEXT-C onto the spacecraft in November 2020, with team members from Aerojet Rocketdyne on hand to support the process. NASA's NEXT–C (NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster–Commercial) is an ion propulsion system developed by NASA Glenn Research Center and Aerojet Rocketdyne. NEXT-C is a solar-powered electric propulsion system, using a gridded ion engine producing thrust by electrostatic acceleration of ions (electrically charged atoms) formed from the xenon propellant. NEXT–C offers improved performance (higher specific impulse and throughput), fuel efficiency, and operational flexibility compared to the ion propulsion systems flown on NASA's previous planetary mission of Dawn and Deep Space 1. Credit: Johns Hopkins APL