Satellites That Can Fit In Your Pocket - Amazing Spaceships In Small Packages

Why It Matters

Pocket cubes make space access affordable enough for dozens of new entrants, accelerating innovation while challenging existing tracking and regulatory frameworks.

Key Takeaways

• Pocket cubes halve CubeSat size, cutting launch cost roughly in half.
• Alba Orbital’s 1U pocket cubes weigh under 250 g, launch for ~$27k.
• Miniature attitude control uses magnetorquers and reaction wheels within 20 cm.
• Solid‑state thrusters promise 1 km altitude gain per watt‑day.
• Open‑source community accelerates development of ultra‑small satellite payloads.

Summary

The video spotlights pocket‑size satellites—so‑called pocket cubes—that shrink the traditional 1U CubeSat to a 2 × 2 × 2 in (50 mm) form factor. Scott Manley explains how the format originated from Bob Twiss’s effort to halve the CubeSat standard and how companies such as Alba Orbital now mass‑produce them.

Pocket cubes weigh under 250 g and cost roughly $27,000 to launch, about half the price of a standard 1U CubeSat on a private ride. They are stacked six‑wide in a rail‑based launcher that springs them into orbit, and the design mandates inert hardware, burn‑wire deployment, and a dead‑man switch before power‑up.

Alba’s “unicorn” 3P platform demonstrates that even a 20 cm spacecraft can host magnetorquers, reaction wheels, and up to 20 W of solar power, enabling precise attitude control and imaging. A solid‑state thruster prototype promises a kilometer of orbital altitude per watt‑day, while teams are already experimenting with orbital rendezvous between multiple pocket cubes.

These advances lower the barrier for universities, startups, and niche missions, expanding the market for ultra‑low‑cost space experiments and creating new opportunities in Earth observation, IoT, and defense. However, the tiny size pushes tracking limits, prompting regulators and operators to refine cataloguing capabilities.

Original Description

Back in March I was visiting Glasgow, I was invited to the PocketQube workshop which is a conference supporting people building satellites even smaller than CubeSats. The smallest are 2 inch or 50millimeter cubes and they cost a lot less to launch than a traditional big CubeSat.

And I was impressed to see demonstrations of deployable solar cells, attitude control, propulsion and even reentry at these scales. So what can you do with a spacecraft which is so small?

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