Japan successfully propels steam-powered spacecraft - The Register

Asia In brief Japan's space agency has successfully used water to propel a spacecraft and claimed it represents "the world's first successful orbit control beyond low-Earth orbit using a water propellant propulsion system."
The craft in question is EQUULEUS, the 6U CubeSat that rode along on NASA's Orion mission.
After flying past the Moon, EQUULEUS was pointed at the second Earth-Moon Lagrange point (EML2). To get there it used an engine named AQUARIUS (AQUA ResIstojet propUlsion System) that uses water as fuel. The craft uses waste heat from communications kit to heat the water into steam that is squirted out to produce thrust.
As explained in this presentation [PDF], water is easier to store and handle than other fuels so is ideal for use in small, cheap, satellites.
AQUARIUS also needs little power to operate but is not very powerful. EQUULEUS will take a year and a half to reach EML2 – a point in space worth visiting because it's advantageous for transfer to other orbits. That includes interplanetary orbits.
The combination of EQUULEUS and AQUARIUS makes a visit to EML2 achievable at low cost and is a test case for future visits to the spot.
EQUULEUS carries an instrument called DELPHINUS (DEtection camera for Lunar impact PHenomena IN 6U Spacecraft) designed to observe Lunar impact flashes and near-Earth asteroids from EML2. Another instrument aboard EQUULEUS will observe Earth's plasmasphere.
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