Why Small Satellites Fail More Often Than Expected

Why Small Satellites Fail More Often Than Expected
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 22, 2025

Small satellites have redefined access to space, enabling startups, academic teams, and emerging space programs to launch missions once limited to major players. Their low cost, compact size, and rapid development cycles make them ideal for today's fast-moving space sector. However, this democratization comes with a high price: a failure rate nearing 40% over the past two decades, according to NASA.

While some of these failures stem from launch errors or hardware flaws, a growing portion is tied to software issues, incomplete systems integration, or unstable communication protocols once in orbit. These failures often prevent satellites from achieving mission objectives and reflect deeper issues in how smallsats are tested and validated before launch.

The financial and reputational stakes are high. Each mission can run $50-60 million and weigh up to 500 kilograms. When failures occur, they can devastate investor confidence, derail academic progress, and delay government timelines. The implications extend well beyond lost hardware.

Unlike large spacecraft integrators, which routinely employ full-system digital validation and have kept failure rates below 10%, many smallsat teams rely primarily on component-level testing. While these tests ensure individual parts endure extreme conditions, they often miss how systems behave together. This leaves crews blind to failures in telemetry, command execution, or unexpected software behavior-until it's too late.

The root problem isn't weak engineering but outdated validation strategies that don't reflect mission complexity. Instead of expanding test volume, experts advocate for a new approach: digital system-level validation that mirrors actual spacecraft operations.

This is where tools like NeXosim come in. Developed by Polish software firm Asynchronics since 2022, NeXosim is an open-source, Rust-based simulation tool that models how satellite subsystems interact in real time. It handles telemetry, timing coordination, and protocol behavior, offering insight into system dynamics that traditional testing misses. Research labs and startups have already adopted it for missions between 75kg and 750kg.

"We're not building a simulator to show that everything works," says Adam Chikha, Chief Operating Officer at Asynchronics. "We're trying to show where things break-how systems interact under real timing and protocol constraints. That's the only way to know what's likely to go wrong in orbit."

Reducing failure rates in smallsat missions won't come solely from tougher hardware. It demands recognition that integration-not just endurance-is the true frontier in mission success.