No analysis of small satellite programs is complete without thorough consideration of the operational concept that will support them. It is not uncommon today that a space system\u27s lifecycle cost will show that operating costs exceeded development and production costs. This is particularly true for programs that hope to reduce spacecraft expense by transferring, to the ground, as much of the on-board processing requirements as operationally feasible. Facility, hardware, software, maintenance, manning, training, communications, on-orbit operations and launch costs all factor into the total operations spending and must be prudently considered
