ISO 19683:2017 provides test methods and test requirements for design qualification and/or acceptance of small spacecraft or units. It provides the minimum test requirements and test methods to qualify the design and manufacturing methods of commercial small spacecraft and their units and to accept the final products.
ISO 19683:2017 places emphasis on achieving reliability against infant mortality after satellite launch to orbit while maintaining low cost and fast delivery.
ISO 19683:2017 is applied to satellites whose development methods are different from the ones used for traditional satellites that have little room for risk tolerance, as shown in Figure 1. The scope of this document encompasses different categories of small spacecraft, so-called mini-, micro, nano-, pico- and femto-, as well as CubeSat, spacecraft. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, the term "small spacecraft" is used throughout this document as a generic term.
ISO 19683:2017 includes CubeSat, as long as it is developed with the untraditional processes.