The paper presents the outcomes of development of Keldysh Research Center (KeRC) KM-5 Hall e¨ect thruster and experience obtained from the in-orbit exploiting of the thruster onboard Reshetnev£s Scienti¦c and Production Association of Applied Mechanics (NPO PM) ¤Express-A4¥ GEO communication spacecraft (SC). KM-5 is a multimode thruster with operational power range from 1 to 2.5 kW in contrast to other thrusters applied in space missions. It has high thrust characteristics. It makes possible solution of orbit raising tasks to geostationary orbit (GEO) for medium and heavy weight SC in addition to tasks of station keeping for geostationary SC already being solved by Hall-e¨ect thrusters. Furthermore, a thruster with such performance can be an e©cient choice as a main engine for small interplanetary probes.