Apex Wants To Bring Henry Ford-Style Mass Production To Satellites

Forbes

Low-Earth orbit has become a battleground for companies and militaries. Apex Technology wants to provide standardized satellites for all of them.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2025/08/12/apex-wants-to-bring-henry-ford-style-mass-production-to-satellites/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, APEX wants to bring Henry Ford-style mass production to satellites.

00:08At APEX Technologies' new brightly-lit factory in Los Angeles, a monitor shows the vital signs

00:14and location of its first satellite as it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes.

00:19The stresses it's undergoing as it passes from blazing sunlight to the cold of night

00:24illustrate why making satellites is so hard and expensive.

00:29This according to APEX's CEO and co-founder Ian Cinnamon.

00:33Cinnamon, a fast-talking 33-year-old with a toothy grin, said, quote,

00:38Imagine your phone has to stay on for five years and every 45 minutes you're going to

00:43put it in the oven and then the freezer.

00:47The satellite, named Ares after Cinnamon's dog, was launched last year less than 12 months

00:53after APEX started work on it, in what they claim is a record time for a small satellite

00:58designed to be mass-produced.

01:00It's a first step toward their goal of bringing Henry Ford-style mass production to the satellite

01:04industry.

01:06Past the monitor, in a clean room on the other side of a clear vinyl curtain, hairnet-wearing

01:11technicians work on another Ares satellite, which sits on a wheeled dolly at one of six

01:16stations on APEX's assembly line.

01:19Cinnamon says it's the wave of the future in the satellite industry, where factories have

01:24historically built a single spacecraft at a time.

01:27With co-founder and CTO Max Banassi, a former lead engineer at SpaceX, he plans to produce

01:33a dozen satellites a month at the factory.

01:38Satellite manufacturing has long been a bespoke business, with each spacecraft customized for

01:42their mission, like taking pictures of the Earth or beaming down TV signals.

01:48Elevated costs and delays have come with the territory.

01:52With more and more small satellites being launched into low-Earth orbit, APEX is trying to convince

01:57Constellation developers that it would be faster and more affordable to use a standardized

02:02spacecraft instead.

02:04APEX is offering three different types of so-called, quote, buses, meaning the main body

02:09of the satellite, including power and control systems.

02:13Customers just have to add their own sensors and other payloads.

02:16For example, say weapons to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles, as envisioned for President

02:22Trump's so-called Golden Dome.

02:25Similar to automakers, APEX offers different trim levels of its satellites, with options

02:30like more power, a fancier communications system, and a choice between electrical or chemical

02:35propulsion.

02:37Otherwise, APEX isn't changing a thing.

02:40Cinnamon thinks that reducing the complexity will be a winning formula for buyers of small

02:44satellites, like defense contractors and telecom companies.

02:49Cinnamon and Banasi see a lot of runway.

02:52Before they started APEX in 2022, the duo canvassed such buyers and said they heard universal dissatisfaction

02:58over delays, cost creep, and poor quality.

03:02Cinnamon told Forbes, quote,

03:03We want to be the first satellite bus manufacturer that people do not hate.

03:08That's our differentiator.

03:10Time will tell if Cinnamon is right, but it's already had early success with the Pentagon,

03:17winning a $46 million Space Force contract in February.

03:20And it's raised $290 million in equity, helping it earn a spot on this year's Forbes

03:25Next Billion Dollar Startups list, which was released this past Tuesday.

03:31Satellite manufacturers booked $20 billion in revenue worldwide last year, according to

03:36the Satellite Industry Association.

03:38APEX hopes to contend for a big share of a growing pie as the U.S. military expands in

03:44space.

03:45Golden Dome alone could cost more than $800 billion, according to the Congressional Budget

03:51Office.

03:52APEX has a long way to go, though.

03:54The company only produced three satellites in 2024.

03:57It's aiming for $10 billion this year.

04:00Still, strong sales boosted its revenue last year to $60 million, Forbes estimates, mostly

04:06from pre-delivery payments for its Aries bus, which can carry up to 330 pounds of payload,

04:12and Nova, named after Banasi's Bernadoodle, which can hold twice as much.

04:17A third bus is in the works that can carry 1,000 pounds, called Comet, after a dog that an

04:22early employee flirted with adopting.

04:25Cinnamon says that orders have topped $100 million from roughly a dozen customers, with

04:30defense accounting for about two-thirds.

04:32APEX has closed-mouthed about who they are and what it's doing for them, citing government

04:37restrictions, but they include the British aerospace conglomerate BAE and defense tech

04:42startup Anderil, which has ordered at least one satellite as it seeks to expand into space.

04:49For full coverage, and to see the entire Next Billion Dollar Startups list, check out Jeremy

04:54Bogasky's piece on Forbes.com.

04:58This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

05:01Thanks for tuning in.

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