A systemic analysis for the transportation of high-value goods: a use case in space CubeSat logistics

The transportation of high-value, safety-critical assets presents unique challenges in logistics, especially when regulatory technical, and international coordination factors intersect. One of the domains where logistics plays a key role is the New Space Economy, wherein small satellites are acting as a cornerstone of its development. Specifically, their increasing adoption is driven by significant cost reduction, technological evolution, and expanding applications in several fields (e.g., telecommunications, environmental monitoring). Alongside the rapid advancements in small satellites technology, several challenges emerge across different stages of their lifecycle. From a logistics point of view, hard challenges are related to the transportation process of the satellite to the launch site, until the mission itself. Despite the significant efforts directed towards the initial and final phases, the transportation process to the launch site embeds features that could jeopardize the safety and effectiveness of the supply chain’s mission. Specifically, logistics, regulatory compliance, and handling conditions mainly impact mission success, highlighting the need for modelling the process at different levels and granularity. Accordingly, this paper proposes the application of the System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) to represent the core logistics processes relevant for the transportation of a small satellite from the manufacturing site to the launch site through the Safety Control Structure (SCS). © 2025, AIDI-Italian Association of Industrial Operations Professors. All rights reserved.