GEO Satellite Bus, GEO Aries Announced by Apex
ESPA-Class Satellite Bus Delivered to First Customers 2026
An ESPA-class satellite bus designed for geostationary orbit (GEO) missions has been announced by Apex. The company will begin delivering GEO Aries buses to customers in 2026.
"GEO Aries leverages the heritage of the Aries bus platform, offering the world's first productized GEO satellite bus."
Ian Cinnamon, Apex
GEO Aries, a version of Apex's Aries bus platform, is a high delta-v satellite bus designed to support the needs of Apex's customers' GEO missions, including communications, imaging, and other use cases. Apex took the objectives of its customer base into consideration and is now releasing the GEO Aries Bus Platform.
The base model is available for purchase today via Apex's online configuration platform, with new configuration packages coming soon to offer customers a suite of options that will achieve broader mission sets. The platform has already considerable interest, including initial purchases from US Government customers.
"Apex has been moving full speed in 2024, including the first successful launch of our Aries platform and strong customer demand for both Aries and Nova. Now that we have moved into our new, state-of-the-art factory, we are thrilled to introduce our first satellite bus designed for a GEO environment, GEO Aries. GEO Aries leverages the heritage of the Aries bus platform, offering the world's first productized GEO satellite bus," said Ian Cinnamon, CEO of Apex. "I'm proud of our team, which continues to innovate and push boundaries to manufacture a new satellite bus that will enable critical missions for our growing number of communications and space sensing customers."
Apex's differentiated approach to satellite bus productization has created a strong underlying foundation for the business. The introduction of GEO Aries, the first productized bus for GEO, only bolsters the company's growing product line, including Aries, which successfully launched on March 4, 2024. As the sole producer of truly productized satellite buses, Apex is committed to helping customers get to space faster and will continue to scale production to achieve that goal. Earlier this year, Apex announced a financing round led by XYZ Venture Capital and CRV to increase production to meet customer demand.