Overview
- Apex announced Project Shadow, a June 2026 on-orbit demonstration funded with $15 million of the company’s own capital.
- The mission will use a Nova “orbital magazine” to host and deploy two non-firing interceptors to prove deployment, environmental control, fire-control commands and in-space cross-links.
- The spacecraft will carry a software-defined radio with Link-182 capability, infrared sensors to track the deployed vehicles and will operate at roughly 500 kilometers in low Earth orbit.
- CEO Ian Cinnamon said Apex has briefed the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program office and opened a factory capable of producing up to 200 satellites per year.
- Large primes are pursuing parallel efforts, with Lockheed Martin targeting a 2028 space-interceptor demo and Northrop Grumman reporting ground testing and operational analysis, as debate continues over costs and procurement details including Trump’s estimate of at least $175 billion over three years.