How long would a satellite take from the idea of it to the end product?

Question: How long would a satellite take from the idea of it to the end product?
- Keywords:
  idea,
  satellite
Asked by 575spcq22 to Vinita, Rachel, Pam, Christopher on 5 Mar 2019.
- Christopher Youens answered on 5 Mar 2019:
  
  It depends on the customer and the end product. For a big scientific mission it can take years to define all of the instruments and aims of the mission before any of it is built, but things like cubesats can be defined and built really quickly. The wait after that is finding space on a launcher!
- Rachel Hudson answered on 7 Mar 2019:
  
  Usually it takes about 10 years from start of idea to launch. Sometimes there can be some delays though, like if lots of things go wrong. Actually lots of missions do get delayed, especially as sometimes there are only a couple of days a year where the orbits of the planets align well enough for launch. If you miss these dates then you can be waiting many months for another oppportunity to launch, even if everything else is ready!
- Pam Anderson answered on 11 Mar 2019:
  
  It really depends on the satellite. Some people can work on some of the big, bespoke satellites for decades! I worked on small satellites, called CubeSats, they’re about the size of a loaf of bread and they only take a few moths to design, build and test. You can have a whole satellite ready in less than a year!

Question: How long would a satellite take from the idea of it to the end product?