Satellite

Rocket (weapon)

World Wide Web

Linguistics

Engineering

Philosophy

Aerospace engineering

Space launch

Kepler

Government (linguistics)

Systems engineering

Operating system

Communications satellite

The Internet

CubeSat

Telecommunications

Computer science

Boom

Launch vehicle

Launched

Environmental engineering

Physics

Task (project management)

Astronomy

Space technology

Astrobiology

Planet

Space (punctuation)

Aeronautics

Electrical engineering

IEEE Spectrum

For decades, the astronomical cost of launching a satellite meant that only government agencies and large corporations ever undertook such a herculean task. But over the last two decades or so, newer, commercial rocket designs that accommodate multiple payloads have reduced launch costs dramatically-from about US $ \$ $54,000 per kilogram in 2000 to about $ \$ $2,720 in 2018. That trend in turn has fostered a boom in the private satellite industry. Since 2012, the number of small satellites-roughly speaking, those under 50 kilograms-being launched into low Earth orbit (LEO) has increased 30 percent every year.

Routers in space: Kepler communications' CubeSats will create an Internet for other satellites