NOTES

Database includes and the term nanosatellite implies them all:

• All CubeSats from 0.25U to 27U. Largest launched is 16U.
• Nanosatellites from 1 kg to 10 kg and shown in kg.
• Picosatellites from 100 g to 1 kg.
• PocketQubes, TubeSats and ThinSats.

Database does not include (generally):

• Femtosatellites (10 g to 100 g), chipsats, disksats and suborbital launches.
• CubeSats bolted to upper stages and not meant to be separate objects.
• Deep space inspection cameras like flown on IKAROS & Tianwen-1.
• Satellites only in idea or concept phase (often difficult to determine). Have a long waitlist.
• Data is since 1998. There were at least 21 nanosatellites launched in the 1960s (Vanguard, OSCAR, ERS) and 1 in 1997.

Approach:

• Each database entry should be an independently flying spacecraft even when deployed together e.g. 60 ThinSats listed as 12 objects. There are some exceptions e.g. tethered CubeSats.
• It is relatively easy to gather most of the launched nanosats, but including planned future and cancelled missions gives a much deeper insight into trends and improves forecasting.
• There are a handful of US and Chinese nanosats about which (almost) nothing is publicly known.
• There is a large number of CubeSats with very little public information, especially after launch.
• Missions and company plans are often changed or cancelled, but not announced publicly.
• The changes in plans are equally interesting thus old renders etc are being kept too.
• Satellite orbits are approximate and priority is given to categorization for readability.

Comments:

• Apologies for possible mistakes, please write about them.
• There is plethora of non-public data.
• Nanosats does not own the credits for photos and logos. Please trace and ask the original authors. Most of them should be linked. They are stored because websites and posts are often deleted.

MOTIVATION

I believe the era of nanosatellites is still to come. We are only in the beginning. Greatly more launches, novel technologies, big constellations and thrilling exploration missions all over the Solar System. Thanks to miniaturized subsystems and payloads, we will be able to visit many more moons and asteroids.

Being bound to fit into a (CubeSat) box empowers creativity and innovation. It is easy to switch to a larger (custom) platform and even cheaper in some cases, but advanced R&D will benefit in the long-term. Many missions that were thought to be impossible with CubeSats are now demonstrated or planned.

"Just because a spacecraft is small, it doesn’t make it easy. A highly constrained spacecraft can push the engineering, push the ingenuity of the team in a way that, in every way, is comparable to some of these big missions that we’re doing." - Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA Associate Administrator

SOURCES

Updates every 3-4 months. Doing the best to keep track when information is accessible. Always attempting to find and link the original sources.

TERMS OF USE

You are very welcome to use the figures. Please credit the author and source, e.g. "Erik Kulu, Nanosats Database, www.nanosats.eu". Open to collaboration in win-win scenarios, please reach out.