At first glance, the news looks good for a new wave of small launch vehicles under development. Several ventures are planning constellations of dozens or hundreds of small satellites for communications and remote sensing, all requiring launches in the next several years. Interest in cubesats, either for constellations or standalone missions, also seems to be growing by the year. Less clear, though, is just how big that market is, and how much of it can be captured by small launch vehicles. Different assessments give widely varying forecasts for the number of smallsats to be launched in the next few years, depending how such satellites are defined.
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