[SatNews] The Elwing Company has been formally granted its second patent by the Japanese Patent Office (JP 5 561 901), joining more than 30 patents for its breakthrough E-IMPAcT satellite electric propulsion technology.

This new patent completes Elwing's intellectual property holdings in Japan, allowing Elwing to offer Japanese satellite manufacturers its most advanced propulsion system design. Elwing's E-IMPAcT technology, which can operate without an auxiliary power source or the implemention of non-mechanical thrust vectoring or oxidizing propellants, has been tested and proven at the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University (EPPDyL), and has undergone further testing at NASA's Propulsion Research and Development Laboratory, located at the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. In early 2014, the technology underwent initial testing at the European Space Agency's ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

Gregory Emsellem, CEO of The Elwing Company, said, "We look forward to establishing our first cooperation with Japanese aerospace companies, who have clearly demonstrated their leadership in electric propulsion innovation with the record-setting Hayabusa mission, and recent contracts with Mitsubishi Electric in Qatar and Turkey.”