Anduril accelerates defense portfolio launch by purchasing Apex off-the-shelf satellite buses

Anduril expands even more “at a higher altitude.”

The company, best known for its AI-powered defense products in the air, on land and at sea, has partnered with satellite bus manufacturer Apex Space to rapidly launch payloads into orbit for the US Department of Defense.

It is a rare occasion when a growing defense contractor chooses to partner with a supplier rather than build the product itself or acquire a supplier directly. But the collaboration makes a lot of sense: Anduril owes its success to its approach to design and product development, which emphasizes developing high-volume products quickly, using off-the-shelf components to reduce costs. Apex is doing the same by producing satellite buses, the part of the spacecraft that handles the payload. This has historically been down to laborious engineering practices, long lead times, and high costs.

“Our focus is to replicate those same things that we’ve done in other domains, in the space domain,” said Gokul Subramanian, Anduril’s SVP of space and software, at a press conference. “If you think about what Anduril has been able to do in the marine, in the air domain, in the subsurface domain, it’s gone from low volume, high cost systems, which are traditionally used, to high volume, low cost systems. That’s our common belief in the space domain, that to be successful in this domain, we have to go higher, lower costs.”

Ian Cinnamon, founder and CEO of Apex Space, said the satellite bus is a “huge bottleneck” in the natural environment that prevents America from putting more people into orbit. Their goal is to bring satellite buses to customers in weeks instead of years, with transparent pricing and a standard product.

A payload designed for Anduril flew on Apex’s first mission in March, which Subramanian called a “mission data processor” to enable in-orbit data processing of images taken from the satellite. That upload uses Lattice, the command and control process used in all Anduril products. Overall, Anduril was able to demonstrate the ability to point a spacecraft at a specific location, take a picture of what the spacecraft saw, process that picture, and link data back to Earth – all automatically.

“That was the first test that led us to be optimistic about our vision for the area, our collaboration with Ian, the bus platform they built,” he said.

Anduril has already purchased a dedicated satellite bus from Apex that will be launched next year. Anduril will operate that system, which will carry home-built payloads and others. That will be the model going forward, the two executives explained: while Apex will provide the buses, Anduril “will do the programming,” Subramanian said.

Subramanian declined to comment on specific opportunities the company hopes to exploit with the new partnership, but it leaves the company well-positioned to take on the role of prime contractor on some coveted contracts. The Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture program, for example, includes a host of satellites to improve tracking of the Space Force’s aging missiles and defense structures. SDA spends huge sums of money on these satellites; so far, companies including Sierra Space, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, have won contracts to build satellites for the program. There is no doubt that Anduril hopes to join this club.

This is not Anduril’s first foray into the space domain: the company won a $10.5 million contract with the Space Systems Command in July 2023 to install Lattice on the Space Surveillance Network’s (SSN) sensors, which are used to provide early missile warnings. Last week, the company was also awarded a $25.3 million contract from the Space Force to provide additional upgrades to the SSN.

This is the first of many partnerships Anduril intends to announce, including with other bus providers, Subramanian said.