Compact accelerators employing laser‐foil interactions which have significant potentials for space propulsion applications were reviewed. A feasibility study was conducted for the use of this phenomenon to primary propulsion applications. In order to evaluate thrust performance of this accelerator, time‐gated imaging measurement with an ICCD camera was conducted for an Al foil target irradiated with an Nd:YAG laser set 1J/pulse with pulse width of 10nsec and wavelength of 1064nm. From the measurement, the maximum plasma speed was ∼ 100 km/sec. © 2004 American Institute of Physics