Aerospace Garage

Upskill / Aerospace and Space / Space satellite design and manufacturing

Space satellite design and manufacturing

From mission idea to orbit and safe disposal: how satellites are specified, designed, built, tested, licensed and launched.

By Aerospace Garage Desk · Introductory · 50 minutes · 24 narrated pages · Updated October 2026

What you will be able to do

  • ✓ Describe the segments of a satellite mission, compare the main orbits and turn a mission need into testable requirements and budgets, including a link budget.
  • ✓ Explain what each subsystem of the satellite bus does and how communications and Earth observation payloads and the ground segment deliver a service.
  • ✓ Outline the ECSS project phases and reviews, the main standards families and the environmental test campaign (vibration, acoustic, shock, thermal vacuum, EMC).
  • ✓ Describe how satellites are manufactured and integrated, from space-grade parts and clean rooms to high-rate constellation production.
  • ✓ Identify the international and national rules a commercial satellite must meet: UN treaties, ITU frequency filing, national licences (US, UK, UAE) and space debris mitigation.

Course content

Session 1 · Mission first: from need to requirements

1.1

  1. A satellite is a mission, not a machine · free preview
  2. Choosing an orbit
  3. From need to requirements and the link budget
  4. Worked example: period, ground track and revisit at 550 km
Session 2 · The satellite bus

1.2

  1. Structure, mechanisms and thermal control
  2. Power: solar arrays, batteries and distribution
  3. Pointing, propulsion, computing and the link to the ground
  4. Worked example: sizing the solar array and battery
Session 3 · Payloads and the ground segment

1.3

  1. Communications payloads
  2. Earth observation payloads
  3. Ground segment, operations and data
  4. Worked example: an X-band downlink budget
Session 4 · Design reviews, standards and verification

1.4

  1. Phases and reviews
  2. Standards and product assurance
  3. Proving it on the ground: environmental testing
  4. Worked example: setting random vibration and thermal vacuum levels
Session 5 · Manufacturing, supply chain and AIT

1.5

  1. Space-grade parts and the supply chain
  2. Assembly, integration and test
  3. Building satellites by the hundred
  4. From the investigation file: Genesis and the switches drawn upside down
Session 6 · Regulation, licensing, launch and end of life

1.6

  1. International law and the radio spectrum
  2. National licensing and launch
  3. Space debris and the end of the mission
  4. Worked example: planning disposal under the five-year rule

Who this course is for

Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms

Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.