World Tech Rankings
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Small satellites

Satellites from shoebox-sized CubeSats upward, and the constellations built from them.

The United States leads small satellites research, with 13.7% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; China is second with 12.9%.

US
FirstUnited States13.7%
CN
SecondChina12.9%
1.1×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Standings

1USUnited States13.7%2CNChina12.9%3ITItaly11.5%4KRSouth Korea6.7%5–7AEUnited Arab Emirates3.5%5–7NONorway3.1%5–7LULuxembourg2.8%8–14JPJapan2.6%8–14DEGermany2.5%8–14AUAustralia2.5%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 126 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

About 25 papers a year. Single-year moves are noise.
010203040% 20212022202320242025 South Korea 11.4%United States 9.2%Italy 6.9%United Arab Emirates 6.4%China 3.9%Norway 0.0%

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-areaPapersFirstSecondThird
CubeSat antennas and radio hardware25USUnited States20.0%KRSouth Korea12.0%AUAustralia10.0%
Constellations, inter-satellite links and satellite networks23CNChina24.3%KRSouth Korea15.0%LULuxembourg10.8%
Attitude control, navigation, autonomy and formation flying20ITItaly28.0%CNChina25.1%USUnited States15.2%
Science, exploration and Earth-observation missions19ITItaly18.4%NONorway10.3%FIFinland10.0%
Power, thermal, structures and on-board computing18CNChina17.5%USUnited States12.5%BRBrazil11.1%
Propulsion and solar sails9ITItaly42.2%USUnited States22.2%AEUnited Arab Emirates11.1%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

Small sample: 50 papers in one period.

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change
USUnited States 15.2%11.5%−3.7 pts
CNChina 13.7%11.7%−2.1 pts
ITItaly 14.6%6.7%−7.9 pts
KRSouth Korea 6.0%7.7%+1.7 pts
AEUnited Arab Emirates 2.4%5.2%+2.8 pts
NONorway 3.9%2.0%−1.9 pts
LULuxembourg 1.3%5.0%+3.6 pts
JPJapan 2.8%2.3%−0.4 pts

Greyed rows rest on fewer than five papers of credit in one period.

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 76 papers in 2021–2023, 50 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (196), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

  1. USUnited States17.3%of 2026 papers have an author here
  2. ITItaly15.8%of 2026 papers have an author here
  3. CNChina8.2%of 2026 papers have an author here
  4. JPJapan8.2%of 2026 papers have an author here
  5. ESSpain5.1%of 2026 papers have an author here

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

  1. 1ITPolitecnico di Milano5.5%
  2. 2NONorwegian University of Science and Technology3.0%
  3. 3ITUniversity of Naples Federico II2.4%
  4. 4AEKhalifa University of Science and Technology2.3%
  5. 5AUUniversity of Wollongong1.9%
  6. 6ITUniversity of Pisa1.8%
  7. 7CNNorthwestern Polytechnical University1.7%
  8. 8JPKyushu Institute of Technology1.6%
  9. 9NLDelft University of Technology1.6%
  10. 10LUUniversity of Luxembourg1.5%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

SectorAllUSCNIT
Universities84.5%
63.4%
81.8%
94.0%
Research facilities6.6%
21.7%
9.7%
3.3%
Government labs3.8%
2.8%
3.7%
2.3%
Companies2.8%
9.8%
4.8%
0%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

36.5% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

  1. ITNLItaly with Netherlands6
  2. CNGBChina with United Kingdom4
  3. DEITGermany with Italy3
  4. NOSJNorway with Svalbard & Jan Mayen2
  5. AEEGUnited Arab Emirates with Egypt2

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

  1. 193citations
  2. Inter-Plane Inter-Satellite Connectivity in Dense LEO Constellations
    IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2021DK
    159citations
  3. 151citations
  4. 132citations
  5. 125citations

More in space, air and defence

The most technologically advanced countries, and is China ahead of the US?

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

cubesat OR nanosatellite OR smallsat OR picosatellite OR "small satellite" OR "small satellites"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Spacecraft Design and Technology; Spacecraft Dynamics and Control; Space Satellite Systems and Control; Satellite Communication Systems; Space exploration and regulation; Rocket and propulsion systems research; Antenna Design and Analysis. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025
1,225
In the top 10%
126
In the top 1%
15
Countries with credit
47
Credit with no known country
4.9%
Every one of the 162 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 12 were left out as not about small satellites

The most cited of those left out:

  • Autonomy for Space Robots: Past, Present, and Future133 citations
  • Origami Antennas81 citations
  • Exploring the possibilities of energetic ionic liquids as non-toxic hypergolic bipropellants in liquid rocket engines52 citations
  • Review on the regression rate-improvement techniques and mechanical performance of hybrid rocket fuels38 citations
  • Dual-use conundrum: Towards the weaponization of outer space?29 citations
  • Robotic manipulators for in-orbit servicing and active debris removal: Review and comparison28 citations
  • Structural integrity of spacecraft structures subject to motion, thermo-structural dynamics and environmental effects - An overview27 citations
  • Equinoctial Lyapunov Control Law for Low-Thrust Rendezvous21 citations
  • Development of a Low-Cost Lightweight Advanced K-Band Horn Antenna With Charge-Programmed Deposition 3-D Printing20 citations
  • Mission Design and Concept of Operations for the Lucy Mission19 citations
  • Orbit-attitude coupled dynamics modeling and adaptive sliding mode control for detumbling large space debris12 citations
  • Aerobraking: Review of the state of the art and required developments7 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

Read the method