Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2019 Issue No. 7 | Page 12

Research and development mode to
production
Tethers Unlimited has been in a research
and development (R&D) mode for much
of their time in business. Hoyt said
that it’s only been in recent years that
they have gone into production mode
with their products. They now have 72
employees at their plant in Bothell. An
employee of five years, Allison Porter,
Ph.D., flight mission manager with Teth-
ers Unlimited said that although they are
now producing products going onto the
space station, among other tangible items,
she sees them staying focused on R&D
for the foreseeable future. “It’s about find-
ing balance,” she said, and added, “we are
really good at R&D.”
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
HYDROS-M
The HYDROS Propulsion System uses on-orbit electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen and oxygen propellant,
which are fed to a simple bipropellant thruster. The HYDROS-M flight units are currently shipping with flight
heritage anticipated by late 2018.