ESA’s first dedicated green propulsion test facility is now operational The Chemical Propulsion Laboratory (CPL) facility has been built for ESA, academia and industry use. It is dedicated to propulsion technologies for small satellites and small missions rather than large rocket engines. It will provide accessible rapid-turnaround testing and make specialist test infrastructure accessible to SMEs and academia. CPL is there to de-risk small propulsion developments and speed progress to the next stage. The facility is operated through an ESA–NLR collaboration.