39th Annual Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat 2025)
- Date
- 2025-08-10
- Location
- Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, United States
- Host
- Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat)
About this event
The 39th Annual Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat 2025) marks a major moment for one of the space industry’s most established gatherings. After decades at Utah State University in Logan, the conference moves to the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City for the first time, reflecting just how much the small satellite ecosystem has grown and how many people now rely on this event to stay current, connected, and ready for what’s next. With the theme “Reaching New Horizons: New Orbit. Same Mission.” this year’s conference signals both continuity and expansion: the mission remains focused on advancing small satellite innovation, while the new venue opens the door to a larger, broader community of engineers, operators, founders, researchers, government teams, and mission planners working across the space sector. About the Event SmallSat 2025 is an in-person industry conference centered on the technologies, missions, operations, and partnerships shaping the future of small satellites. It brings together the people building spacecraft, launching them, operating them, enabling payloads, processing mission data, and supporting the infrastructure that makes modern space activity possible. This is not a general-interest space expo. It is a focused gathering for people who care about the practical realities of small satellite development and deployment: what is technically working, what is changing in the market, where the bottlenecks are, and how organizations are adapting. The long history of the conference gives it a grounded, working-level feel that appeals to professionals who want substance over spectacle. At the same time, the move to Salt Lake City suggests a conference that is growing in scale and reach. Expect a larger footprint, more room for attendees and exhibitors, and a setting designed to support a high volume of meetings, conversations, and side discussions that often matter just as much as the formal program. What to Expect Attendees should expect a multi-faceted conference environment built around sessions, industry conversations, and in-person networking. While the exact program may vary, the event is designed to convene a wide range of stakeholders from across the small satellite landscape, making it useful whether your focus is spacecraft design, payload integration, launch strategy, constellation operations, government missions, research, or commercialization. You can expect the conference experience to include: Technical and industry-focused sessions exploring current developments in small satellite systems and missions Presentations and discussions that connect engineering progress with operational and strategic realities Exhibitor and solution-provider engagement for attendees evaluating tools, components, services, and partners Peer-to-peer conversations with practitioners facing similar mission, product, and program challenges Cross-sector interaction between commercial, academic, civil, and government participants Because SmallSat has built its reputation over many years, one of its strengths is the mix of perspectives in the room. You are likely to hear not just about ambitious ideas, but about implementation: deployment constraints, program decisions, scaling issues, and lessons learned from real missions and real organizations. That makes the conference particularly valuable for teams trying to move from concept to execution, or from early success to sustainable growth. The event’s theme also points to an important tension the conference is well positioned to explore: how the small satellite field can keep expanding into new applications, markets, and technical frontiers while staying anchored to the mission discipline that successful space programs require. Why Attend If you work in or around small satellites, this conference offers a concentrated way to understand where the field is heading and how your work fits into it. Rather than piecing together updates from scattered sources, you can spend time in the room with the people designing missions, solving technical problems, building supply chains, and defining the next phase of the market. This is especially useful for attendees who want to: Track the state of the small satellite sector beyond headlines Meet potential collaborators, vendors, customers, or mission partners in person Learn from operational and technical experience shared by people doing the work firsthand Pressure-test ideas and plans through direct conversation with knowledgeable peers See how the ecosystem is evolving as demand, attendance, and industry scope continue to expand There is also value in the setting itself. Conferences like this work best when they create room for both structured learning and the informal exchanges that happen between sessions. For many attendees, the biggest takeaway is not just a notebook of insights, but a sharper sense of which technologies are maturing, which partnerships are worth pursuing, and which questions need more attention before the next mission milestone. For newer entrants, SmallSat 2025 can serve as a fast, practical introduction to the people, vocabulary, priorities, and decision points that define the field. For long-time participants, it is a chance to reconnect with a community that has grown significantly while remaining centered on the same core mission. Practical Details Location: The event takes place in person at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, United States. The move from Logan to a larger convention venue is a meaningful update this year and signals increased attendance and a broader on-site experience. Timing: The conference is listed for Sunday, August 10 at 12:00 AM UTC. If you are traveling internationally or coordinating with colleagues in other time zones, it is worth confirming your local schedule and any related conference programming in advance. A few practical reasons this edition may be especially worth planning for: Bigger venue capacity following years of growth Centralized convention setting suited to large-scale sessions and meetings In-person access to the broader small satellite community in one place A milestone year for a conference with nearly four decades of history If SmallSat is already on your radar, this is the year that reflects its next stage: larger, more visible, and still rooted in the mission that made it matter in the first place. If you need a serious, high-signal event focused on the real work of small satellites, SmallSat 2025 deserves a place on your calendar.
Who should attend
If your work or curiosity sits anywhere in the small satellite ecosystem, this is a strong place to be. - **You build, design, or test small spacecraft systems** and want to stay current on how the field is evolving across platforms, components, mission architectures, and operational approaches. - **You lead programs, product strategy, or technical teams** and need a clear view of where the market is heading, what peers are prioritizing, and how the community is responding as the sector continues to scale. - **You work in launch, ground systems, software, communications, data, or mission operations** and want to connect your piece of the stack to the broader smallsat landscape. - **You’re in government, defense, civil space, research, or academia** and value being in the room with the companies, institutions, and practitioners shaping near-term capability and long-term direction. - **You’re a founder, investor, business development lead, or partnership builder** looking for serious industry conversations, practical networking, and a concentrated view of the organizations active in small satellites. - **You’re an engineer, student, or early-career professional** who wants exposure to the real priorities, challenges, and opportunities defining today’s aerospace and space technology environment.