How long the hardware takes to arrive

Delivery time is the second question a buyer asks, and almost nobody publishes it — the standard answer is «on request». 535 products in this catalogue do state a lead time, from 48 suppliers. The median across all of them is 6 mo; the spread runs from 2 wk to 60 mo.

Every median here carries its sample size

A median computed over two products looks exactly as authoritative in a table as one computed over two hundred, and quietly turns a report into fiction. So the number of published figures behind each row is shown next to it, and 12 categories with fewer than 8 figures are left out entirely rather than shown thinly. These are quoted lead times, not measured deliveries: what a manufacturer publishes and what a customer waits are not always the same number.

Counted from catalogue records, not estimated. As of 2026-09-05. Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0) — download as CSV.

Category Typical wait Middle half Fastest Longest Figures published
Chemical Propulsion 12 mo 12 mo – 12 mo 1.8 mo 22 mo 16
Ground Segment 12 mo 6 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 48 mo 93
Ground Stations 10.5 mo 9 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 18 mo 18
Propulsion 10 mo 6 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 22 mo 82
Electric Propulsion 10 mo 9 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 14 mo 27
EPS & Power Conditioning 10 mo 8 mo – 18 mo 6 mo 18 mo 8
Satellite Platforms 9 mo 3 mo – 14 mo 6 wk 18 mo 18
Structures & Mechanisms 6 mo 2.3 mo – 6 mo 4 wk 15 mo 39
Power Systems 6 mo 2 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 18 mo 34
ADCS & Navigation 6 mo 3 mo – 8 mo 4 wk 24 mo 37
Cameras & Imagers 6 mo 3 mo – 12 mo 2 mo 24 mo 9
Payloads & Instruments 6 mo 3 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 24 mo 25
Test Equipment & EGSE 6 mo 5 mo – 9 mo 4 wk 18 mo 37
GNSS Receivers 5.5 mo 3 mo – 7 mo 4 wk 10 mo 14
CubeSat Platforms 5 mo 3 mo – 12 mo 2 mo 12 mo 8
Radios & Transceivers 5 mo 3.7 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 12 mo 14
OBC & Avionics 5 mo 2 mo – 6 mo 4 wk 12 mo 11
Communications 4.6 mo 3 mo – 12 mo 4 wk 20 mo 47
Microelectronics & Components 4 mo 3 mo – 10 mo 2 wk 12 mo 54
Deployers & Separation Systems 4 mo 2.8 mo – 4.1 mo 1.8 mo 12 mo 10
Batteries 4 mo 1.8 mo – 6 mo 4 wk 18 mo 10
Separation Systems 3.4 mo 2.8 mo – 4 mo 1.8 mo 12 mo 8
Antennas 3 mo 4 wk – 12 mo 4 wk 20 mo 39
Thermal Control 3 mo 2 mo – 4 mo 6 wk 6 mo 11
Solar Panels & Arrays 2.8 mo 1.8 mo – 7 mo 4 wk 18 mo 17
Reaction Wheels 2.8 mo 2.8 mo – 5 mo 2.8 mo 24 mo 12

«Middle half» is the range the middle 50% of quoted figures fall into — a fairer picture of what to expect than the extremes. Waits shorter than six weeks are shown in weeks, because that is how the manufacturers themselves quote them.

See also: component benchmarks · specification comparisons · specification openness