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an American company. These nanosats came from Planet Labs

the way ahead for satellite technology is clear. ""You can now

these contain all the basic elements of a satellite

a small mothership was placed in orbit carrying 104 ""sprites"" (pictured below). Not much larger than a postage

including four PocketQubes (a 5cm cube format). One of these

satellites of this scale and other small satellites are moving from being experimental kit to

carried 32 satellites into a similar orbit. Then

a record for a single mission. Thirty hours later

satellites are expensive to build and to launch. That began to change last year. On November

and will damage America's interests: exciting new ventures like nanosats

but America's regulations still seem excessive. A regular review to distinguish

they burn up on re-entry after a year or so. And being cheap

studying the sun and tracking ships and aircraft. Such a system might have been able to track

the innovative rocket-maker founded by Elon Musk

so will nanosats. The cheapest so far—a tiny chipsat—was assembled for just $25

ever cheaper components built for smartphones and other

000 nanosats are expected to be launched.

and some ingenious use of the abilities they do have

as small satellites weighing no more than a few kilograms are called

but each is vastly more capable than Sputnik