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 engineering

Today’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 name
Why the Apex team is best suited to tackle the satellite bus market
How to successfully work with commercial vs. government customers
The importance of the SpaceX Transporter-10 mission
The geopolitical tailwinds supporting the space industry
And 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/itsmoislam
Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace
Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL\_uY3GaNf67hP-i6TRWF2n06xMv1kdkZ6
Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

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Standardizing Satellites Buses, with Ian Cinnamon (Apex Space)

Valley of Depth