Small satellite manufacturer Apex will launch its first satellite next year as a demonstration of its capabilities in preparation for large-scale production. Apex announced on April 4 that the first Aries satellite will fly as part of a joint SpaceX Transporter-10 mission scheduled to launch before January 2024. The satellite mission, which the company calls “Call to Adventure,” will carry multiple payloads for a group of undisclosed customers.

This mission is primarily a technology demonstration for Apex that tests the performance of the 200-kilogram Aries satellite. “We want to be able to try certain maneuvers and perform high-risk operations while in space,” the company’s CEO, Ian Cinnamon, said in an interview.

He said customers were those who were interested in purchasing a complete spacecraft from Apex and signed what he called “multi-million dollar contracts” for the mission. “Once our paying customers are finished using the spacecraft for their needs, we will be able to use the spacecraft as a test bed in space” and take legacy flights on key subsystems before moving into full-scale production.

In October, Apex announced plans to mass-produce the small satellites, raising $7.5 million in seeds. Cinnamon said the company has added funding since that announcement, increasing it to $10 million. The company currently plans to produce five Aries spacecraft in 2024, increasing the number to 20 by 2025 and 100 by 2026.

The company’s goal is to produce a standardized bus that can be produced in large volumes and supports different customers without expensive customization. “The whole mindset of our company is shifting to this productive approach where we don’t do individual NREs. [неповторювані інженерні роботи] for every end customer,” he said. “We designed this so that we don’t have to change anything on the spacecraft if another customer requests a different configuration package.”

Apex did not disclose customers for the Aries satellite, but Cinnamon said the company is in talks with both government and commercial customers. Commercial interest, he said, includes the use of these satellites for imaging and communication, as well as applications related to orbital vehicles. Government customers are interested in satellites that can be built quickly, especially in the field of national security.

The company is planning two large satellites: the 500-kilogram Nova and the 1,000-kilogram Comet. Half the mass of these spacecraft and the smaller Aries is for payload and fuel, and the other half for the bus itself.

“Almost all the interest in the market today is in this 200-kilogram vehicle,” he said, expressing interest in the larger Nova bus. “There is no market for larger vehicles at the moment, but I believe it will start to grow a bit more over time.”

He said the biggest challenge in Apex’s plans is supply chain issues in the industry. “There are huge challenges in the supply chain, and one of the things that is very important to us is understanding how we mitigate these challenges at a very early stage.”

To address these issues, the company has ordered components not only for the first Aries satellite, but also for several other satellites it plans to build. “Our whole mentality is to move faster,” he said. “Even before we find customers for the next few years, we buy these components and start production.”