Why is a satellite like a race car? Apex and Toyota’s racing division have an answer

Orbits and racetracks have something fundamental in common.

Yes, one’s celestial and the other’s terrestrial, populated by spaceships and satellites versus race cars. But both environments are also wildly unforgiving places: On racetracks, cars must withstand heat, collisions, and relentless mechanical stress. Meanwhile, satellites in orbit face radiation exposure and an airless landscape—hardware must stand alone against temperature and time, with no help on the way. For both satellites and race cars, tiny miscalculations become calamitous. 

“Orbits and racetracks are very inhospitable environments,” said Jim Adler, founder and general partner at Toyota Ventures, the $251 billion automaker’s corporate venture arm.

Adler’s been considering the parallels between space and racing since 2024, when Apex CEO and cofounder Ian Cinnamon (who’s devoted his life to the complex challenge of mass-producing satellites) came to him with a pitch: Could Toyota Racing Development—which builds Toyota and Lexus’s race cars, including for NASCAR—help Apex with manufacturing certain satellite parts?

“Apex is really built around the premise of thinking about building satellites using automotive skills,” said Cinnamon. “Race cars are the prime example, in everything from how you manage your supply chain, to how you think about the quality bar. When you’re dealing with a race car going 100-plus miles per hour, carrying a human, that thing cannot fail. And you need to be building them at some scale. Scale, I think, is the keyword.” 

Adler—who spearheaded Toyota Ventures’s 2023 investment in now-$2.3 billion Apex—quickly connected Cinnamon with Jack Irving, Toyota Racing Development USA’s general manager, who’s been working with the division since 2010. It was a surprising but fast philosophical match. 

“If there’s ever an issue with our engine, it’s a pretty big deal,” said Irving. “All of the details have to matter. If your satellite suddenly has an issue in........

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