Through the development of a low-cost, 5 kg multi-mission nanosatellite bus at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Space Flight Laboratory, a number of new and interesting applications are now possible on a nanosatellite platform. Two ventures currently underway that adopt the multi-mission nanosatellite bus are an astronomy mission, CanX-3 (also known as the BRight Target Explorer - BRITE), and a dual-satellite formation flight mission, CanX-4/5. CanX-3 is a space telescope that will monitor long-term light fluctuations from the brightest stars in our galaxy to study stellar structure and galactic evolution. CanX-4/5 will demonstrate precise formation flight by controlling position to the 1 m level, and by providing determination with an order of magnitude better accuracy, all via a commercial GPS receiver and a custom propulsion system. The driving force behind the multi-mission concept is the objective of reducing non-recurring engineering design costs. While this approach violates microspace philosophy by not tailoring to each specific mission, this paper argues that consideration and combination of the mission requirement sets allow a limited generic approach that holds to the basic tenets of the philosophy, allowing substantial cost savings to be realized, over and above the case of tailoring to specific mission interests