Preliminary thrust characterization of a 1-2 kW level Hall effect thruster sized to operate with water vapor flow to the anode is presented. The AQUAHET thruster, provided by URA Thrusters Ltd, is operated at the Imperial Plasma Propulsion Laboratory facilities using an improved version of the liquid flow control-based water vapor feedline. Measurements taken to assess flow stability in the line are shown before datapoints taken at 1.75 mg/s of water
vapor flow to the anode and 2.5 A of magnet current are presented. The impact of varying anode mass flow between 1.50 and 1.75 mg/s, and the impact of varying magnet current between 0.5 and 2.5 A, is also assessed for water vapor operation. During this preliminary campaign, powers of only up to roughly 1 kW are probed due to limitations in the power supply setup. For a water plasma at this lower range of discharge powers, so up to 1063 ± 1 W, we measure thrust up to 14.5 ± 0.3 mN, specific impulse up to 845 ± 16 s, and anode thrust efficiency up to 5.6 ± 0.2 %. Future tests will probe discharge powers up to 2 kW, as well as
alternate channel geometries and operational set points.