Apex Space

Apex Space runs a hardware-plus-recurring-services model, selling satellite buses — the standardized platform that hosts a payload — to commercial and defense customers, with revenue recognized at delivery and then through ongoing integration, testing, and mission-support contracts. Their Nova bus is a software-defined, mass-produced chassis designed to cut the typical 2–3 year satellite build cycle down to months, targeting the growing backlog of payloads waiting for a ride. Customers buy a physical bus and then pay for the customization, configuration management, and on-orbit support that makes the platform mission-ready. The economics resemble aerospace manufacturing: hardware carries high unit cost and up-front capital intensity, while the recurring service layer — software configuration, test harness, launch integration — is where margin builds and customer stickiness forms. There is no subsidies or cross-sell; each contract is priced to cover materials, integration labor, and a margin on the bus itself. The model scales through repeatability: designing the Nova bus for volume manufacturing and software-defined reconfiguration means each subsequent unit requires less engineering overhead, pushing unit costs down as production ramps.