How a 120,000 sq. ft. facility in Colorado is quietly becoming a national asset.
In Colorado, just outside Denver, construction has quietly wrapped on an important industrial build that will have an outsized impact on space manufacturing. It’s not a rocket factory. Not a launch site. It’s something more foundational. Innovation Drive is purpose-built to manufacture large deployable apertures at scale. What’s happening inside this 120,000 square foot site could reshape how America delivers capability in orbit. Because in a contested space environment, the aperture is everything.
The U.S. needs an industrial base capable of delivering deployable antenna technology at scale and speed.
In today’s contested space environment, the ability to sense, communicate, and coordinate from orbit is a decisive advantage. At the heart of that capability lies a critical bottleneck: deployable antennas. These systems have long been niche, long-lead components. Today, they are foundational to the next era of proliferated constellations, supporting persistent sensing, global imaging, and resilient communications architectures. But the challenge is no longer just performance, it’s delivery.
To meet emerging threats and mission timelines, the U.S. must cultivate an industrial base that can build, integrate, and field these systems rapidly and reliably. That means moving beyond bespoke manufacturing and toward a new model: one built for throughput, modularity, and precision at scale. Winning the next fight in space will depend not just on what we build, but how fast we can build it.
This is capability is exactly what Tendeg is building.
Built by Tendeg in Colorado, our new facility, 'Innovation Drive' is redefining domestic space manufacturing with the capacity to deliver deployable antennas at scale and speed.
Innovation Drive is America’s first dedicated facility for scaled manufacturing of deployable space antennas engineered from the ground up to support serialized production, integrated test, and rapid delivery in alignment with national mission timelines.
Innovation Drive is powered by a vertically integrated team spanning engineering, manufacturing, quality, and test, bringing flight-proven expertise and industrial execution together under one roof.
Innovation Drive is designed for throughput. Modular bays support simultaneous integration of multiple antenna systems enabling faster delivery without compromising precision or quality.
Tendeg’s flight heritage is proven. Every Tendeg integrated flight configuration has deployed successfully, validating our engineering approach and manufacturing discipline across a range of missions.
The name won’t make headlines on its own. But what’s happening inside could reshape how America delivers capability in orbit. Because in a contested space environment, the aperture is everything. Deployable antennas are the bridge between mission design and real-world performance. They are the hardware that enables secure communications, delivers ISR from orbit, and ensures operational awareness in complex theaters. But for decades, they’ve been treated as bespoke components, procured over long lead cycles, built by hand, and often viewed as a limiting factor in satellite development.
Tendeg is changing that model:
“Space dominance will be decided in part by industrial scaled production,” said Gregg Freebury, Founder and CEO of Tendeg. “The U.S. has the talent and the tools. With Innovation Drive, we’re adding industrial capacity for this critical asset. This facility is built to deliver the high performing deployable antennas space missions require, at a pace national security demands.”
Innovation Drive isn’t theoretical. It’s operational. Equipment is being installed, workflows are activating, and hardware is moving. Its modular bays enable parallel builds of large and small reflectors. Test and inspection happen under the same roof as engineering and manufacturing. Vertical integration eliminates bottlenecks and accelerates delivery timelines whether for one-of-a-kind deep space missions or scalable LEO constellations.
“We’re not pitching a capability we’re building it,” said Scott Slack, Tendeg’s Director of Marketing & Communications. “With 25 antennas already on orbit and programs ramping, Innovation Drive is not a future bet. It’s here, it’s staffed, and it’s aligned with missions that matter.”
At a time when phased arrays dominate public attention, deployable antennas remain essential for missions that demand range, gain, and reliability. Especially in medium and high Earth orbits, where power budgets and link distances challenge phased array systems, physical apertures unlock capability. But only if you can build them. And build them fast.
That’s the premise behind Innovation Drive: a facility not built to chase valuation, but to deliver sovereign manufacturing capacity. With over 145 employees and growing, Tendeg is not just contributing to national security it’s anchoring Colorado’s role in it. The company is one of only three in the U.S. building this class of hardware, and the only one operating as a small business. Developed entirely without outside investment, the facility reflects a long-term commitment and not a short-term exit plan.
Innovation Drive sits within a broader truth: America’s future in space won’t be won by who has the best slide decks. It will be won by who can deliver. On orbit. On time. And on demand.
This is what industrial readiness looks like. Quiet. Disciplined. And very much in motion.