Miniature spacecrafts are distinguished by short design cycle, they are easy to control and require significantly lower orbit deployment expenses. Nanosatellites' monotechnicity facilitates increased reliability and cost-efficiency of information systems based on them.

Spacecraft classification
Large	over 1000 kg
Midi	500 – 1000 kg
Minisatellites	100 – 500 kg
Microsatellites	10 – 100 kg
Nanostellites	1 – 10 kg
Picosatellites	Less than 1 kg

Advantages of space systems development testing on process-oriented miniature spacecraft:

• significant (tens of times) technology concepts ground and flight testing expenses reduction;
• space systems or specific components design and flight testing duration reduction to 1 year;
• acceleration of migration from conventional "large" satellites constellations to miniature spacecrafts constellations.

Most famous nanosatellite projects (chronologically)
Germany, Berlin Institute of Technology	"Tubsat-N" – 8,5 kg	Surface radio beacons data acquisition, animal migrations monitoring	1998
Sweden, Institute of Space Physics	«Munin» — 7,5 kg	Aurora Polaris and space weather study	2000
England, SSTL	SNAP-1 — 6,5 kg	Orbital maneuvers, other satellite's inspection	2000
USA, California Polytechnic University	«CubeSat» — 1,5 kg	Earth's remote sensing	2001
USA, Stanford University	«QuakeSat» — 3 kg	earthquake precursors study	2003
Russia, ОАО "Rossiyskie kosmicheskie sistemy"	TNS-0 No. 1 — 5 kg	miniaturized onboard subsystems testing, chassis development testing	2005
USA, NASA	«Spheres» — 3 kg	several nanosatellites synchronized maneuvering	2006
USA, Aerospace Corporation	MEPSI 2A&2B — 1,5 kg	MEMS components and inspection technologies demonstration	2007
Israel, nanosatellite association	INSAT-1 — 3 kg	nanosatellite based NAPS navigation system development testing	2008

Orbital deployment methods:

• Concurrent deployment;
• Cluster deployment;
• Dedicated singles payload deployment;
• Launch from IIS or "Progress" freighter spacecraft