Standardizing Satellites Buses, with Ian Cinnamon (Apex Space)

Ian Cinnamon is the CEO and Co-founder of Apex Space, a startup manufacturing satellite buses in the 100-kilogram class that can support ~100 kgs of payload. It aims to sell Aries, its first product, into the commercial space market and support EO and communications missions. Apex says Aries will be available as an off-the-shelf platform that can be configured with specific subsystems to support certain customer needs.Ian previously was an Investor and Entrepreneur in Residence at Village Global. Prior to Village, Ian founded Synapse Technology, an AI security startup that exited to Palantir. Max Benassi, Apex’s other cofounder, formerly built vehicles at SpaceX and served as Astra’s director of engineeringToday’s episode is brought to you by SpiderOak Mission Systems, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. • A sneak peek •Ian and Mo talk about Apex’s origin story, the complexities of satellite bus manufacturing, and the size of Apex’s target market. They also discuss:The long-awaited history behind the Cinnamon family nameWhy the Apex team is best suited to tackle the satellite bus marketHow to successfully work with commercial vs. government customersThe importance of the SpaceX Transporter-10 missionThe geopolitical tailwinds supporting the space industryAnd much more…• Chapters •00:00:00 Intro + SpiderOak Ad 01:11:00 The Origin of the Cinnamons 03:31:06 Introduction to Apex 07:57:11 Difficulties of in-house bus development 09:52:02 Apex vs. Terran Orbital vs. York Space 13:19:19 Working with the government customer 18:08:16 Quantifying the satellite bus market 21:47:09 Refueling in LEO, is there a market? 25:31:11 Capital flows in launch vs bus manufacturing 28:32:04 Difficulties of bus manufacturing 30:38:01 SpiderOak Ad 31:17:03 SpaceX Transporter 10 Mission 32:21:16 The Apex Team 38:38:02 Ian’s background as an investor and operator 43:18:06 Geopolitics as a tailwind 46:23:09 Rapid Fire! (Mentors/figures, startups Ian is excited about, how to spend free time) 49:43:14 Outro• Show notes •Apex - https://www.apexspace.com/Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislamPayload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspacePathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL\_uY3GaNf67hP-i6TRWF2n06xMv1kdkZ6Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes• About us •Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. We publish three properties:Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/)Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com)Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)Find out more about us at http://payloadspace.com/