This is the first of a series of two courses, which are intended to provide graduate students with practical space systems engineering experience. Through two consecutive courses, students can participate in a real Canadian Space Agency 'MicroSat' mission, gaining a year's worth of training under some of the leading spacecraft designers in North America. This two-term apprenticeship allows students to learn and play an active role in spacecraft design, prototyping, assembly, integration, and test. Depending on the stage of the project when students join, they will be exposed to anything from preliminary subsystem design to actual on-orbit operations of a real satellite. Depending on when the student takes the course, he or she will join a coordinated team involved in spacecraft design, prototyping, assembly, integration or test. Students will be exposed to one or more of the following areas: Systems Engineering; Mission Analysis; Power; Communications; Telemetry/Telecommand; Thermal Control; Structure; Attitude Control; On-Board Computers. This course is open only to students enrolled in the research program at the Space Flight Laboratory.