Overview of the New Space CubeSat market

This chapter overviews the emergence of the New Space CubeSat market from technical, application, and business perspectives. New Space is defined as a new phase in the exploitation of space that encompasses innovations on both technical and business aspects. Among the most significant distinguishing traits between New Space and legacy space activities is the origination of funding for the activities. While traditional space missions have been funded primarily by government institutions (such as space agencies), the New Space industry operates on commercial business models, and adopts product development processes that are different from those used in legacy space missions. This chapter will overview technical trends and perspectives in customer focus, business models, and product development processes being followed by New Space missions when compared to traditional space development activities.