ISO 19683:2026

This document provides test methods and test requirements for design either qualification or acceptance, or both 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.

This document is applicable to satellites whose development methods are different from the ones used for traditional satellites that have little room for risk tolerance. The scope of this document encompasses different categories of small spacecraft, so-called mini-, micro-, nano-, pico- and femto spacecraft.

This document includes CubeSat, as long as it is developed with the untraditional processes.

This document does not cover satellite deployment mechanisms, such as picosatellite orbital deployer (POD), as the verification requirements are defined in the interface control document (ICD) with the launcher, such as ISO 26869[1].

This document does not cover software testing, although some tests such as functional test, mission test and end-to-end test are inherently used to test the software installed in the hardware being tested. General requirements and processes of satellite software testing can be found in various references, such as ECSS-E-ST40[2].

This document does not cover requirements regarding safety nor debris mitigation. Appropriate documents such as ISO 14620-1[3] or ISO 24113[4] can be referred to. Other common requirements for small spacecraft can be found in ISO 20991[5].