Kick Motor

A Kick Motor is kind of 'single use' rocket engine used to put satellites into their (nearly) final orbit. After launch, satellites usually start in orbits that are limited by the performance of the launch vehicle, and also by principles of safe operations. Especially for moving into a geostationary orbit, a big single thrust is used to increase the size of the orbit (loosely speaking: the faster a satellite goes, the bigger the orbit - within limits). It is most energy-efficient to apply this thrust at the apogee (opposite of perigee) of the initial orbit, so the engine used is often called an Apogee Kick Motor (AKM) because of the timing of the thrust, and the single-use sudden change in orbit which kicks the satellite higher.