Orbital Economy

> Currently it takes a minimum of 2 years to
> build a cookie-cutter satellite (by cookie cutter I
> mean one utilizing an already proven design with
> little changes). For a more advanced satellite, start
> throwing on the years. Even something as small as a
> globalstar/iridium satellite took 5 years to develop.
> And those were obsolete before they even launched!
>
> Ryan Z

Does it take so long because you're trying to save weight in the
satellite and every component has to be radiation hardened, vacuum
chamber tested, and run through a series of simulations because
failure is so expensive once in orbit?

What chews up that time?

TangoMan