Cubesat is developed as a set of nanosat standard specifications by Stanford University and California Polytechnic University. Universities, institutes and space industries progressively pay attention to develop the various applications of cubesat,contributing to its significantly lower cost and standardization contrast to conventional satellites. In this paper，the features and standards of cube sat are described. Furthermore, the technical status and development tendency insight into subsystems are summarized, such as structure design, thermal control, on-board computer, attitude control, electrical power subsystem, and communication. Based on the analysis of technical characteristics of cubesat, the summary of cubesat space applications is also proposed. Finally, taking Cubesat ″NJUST-1″ as example, it is showed that cubesat is of important value for aerospace engineering education.