Washington – – September 16, 2026 -- Elveo Mobile and Apex have agreed to establish a dedicated spacecraft factory in the United States to scale production of Elveo's direct-to-device (D2D) satellite constellation, using Apex's Factory X manufacturing model to compress timelines for the company's first satellite production facility.
Apex's Factory X model gives Elveo a vertically integrated production blueprint
Apex, known as The Spacecraft Platform Company, will supply proven spacecraft platforms and high-rate manufacturing expertise to help Elveo stand up and operate its own U.S. facility. Elveo plans to replicate this blueprint with regional partners to expand manufacturing into Europe and Asia, building what the company describes as a global supply chain for its low-Earth orbit (LEO) network.
Elveo CEO says the deal shortens the path to fleet-scale production
"This partnership not only puts us in control of our own development destiny and cost structure but also allows us to create high-tech economic opportunities internationally with partners," said Ramu Potarazu, CEO of Elveo. Apex CEO Ian Cinnamon said the collaboration would let Elveo deploy its constellation "years ahead of traditional bus supplier timelines," citing Apex's mass-manufacturing expertise for proliferated LEO deployments.
Elveo's network is built for 3GPP-compliant direct-to-device connectivity
Elveo's satellite network will run on patented technology compliant with 3GPP non-terrestrial network (NTN) standards, with onboard processing and networking designed to let the system adapt to evolving requirements from mobile network operators (MNOs). The network targets direct connectivity to smartphones, IoT devices and machines for enterprise, government and humanitarian users.
Apex is already ramping serial production to 200 spacecraft buses annually
Apex, founded in 2022 by Ian Cinnamon and Max Benassi, operates a high-rate manufacturing facility in Los Angeles, California, where serial production is scaling to 200 buses per year. The company's Aries, Nova and Comet spacecraft platforms have been selected by Tier 1 U.S. primes and commercial operators for missions ranging from commercial constellations to national security architectures.