Programs
FORGEManufacturing & Flight QualificationNEXUSCislunar Domain AwarenessHERMESIn-Space Mobility & LogisticsWIRESCommunications, Navigation & TimingATLASPrecision Lunar Delivery
TechnologyThe MapCampaignsDoctrineGovernmentCareers · 11UpdatesPartnersRequest a Briefing
Program 01 · FORGE

FORGE

Fabrication, Origination, Refinement, Grade Engineering

Manufacturing & Flight Qualification

FORGE is the manufacturing and flight qualification foundation of the stack: precision components for space, defense, and aviation programs, precision optics, vacuum EO/IR qualification, COTS-to-flight, and satellite systems manufacturing on the ground in Colorado, with the documentation discipline federal customers audit against.

Lead program. First revenue: ground operations from Colorado, 2027.

Request a BriefingRequest a QuoteHow FORGE Works

Constanellis builds five programs from the ground outward: FORGE and NEXUS on the ground, HERMES and WIRES in orbit, ATLAS on the lunar surface. FORGE is the ground stage of that sequence.

The problem

Defense programs wait longest for the smallest hardware.

Precision optics and qualified components sit on the critical path of programs a thousand times their size. The suppliers who make them are few, backlogged, and rarely set up for the test and documentation burden defense customers carry. FORGE exists to be the supplier we could not find: precision components for space and defense, qualified in-house, delivered with the paperwork already right.

The gap is measurable, and the measurement is published. ESA's 2026 space-economy report counts 219 defense satellites launched in 2025, nearly five times the 2020 figure, and estimates that China accounted for 62 percent of the world's defense-related launch and manufacturing value that year against 18 percent for the United States. Every one of those spacecraft is built from components somebody has to qualify. FORGE is built to move that arithmetic, on American soil.

Precision Optics

Retroreflectors and laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs): settled physics, unforgiving tolerances. Optical design, assembly support, metrology, and acceptance documentation for hardware that has to perform exactly as modeled.

Vacuum EO/IR Qualification

Thermal-vacuum test of electro-optical and infrared hardware: performance verified in the environment the hardware will actually see, with the data package to prove it.

COTS-to-Flight Cycles

Commercial components screened, qualified, and documented for flight use. The fastest honest path from a catalog part to a part you can put on a mission.

Our approach

Build, test, and document under one roof.

The value of FORGE is not any single machine. It is that fabrication, qualification testing, and the acceptance data package live in one building with one quality system, so a design change is an engineering conversation instead of a vendor negotiation, and delivery includes the evidence, not just the hardware.

The scope runs from the component to the spacecraft. The same floor that qualifies a retroreflector is being built to manufacture and integrate complete small satellite platforms, end to end, under one quality system: the platforms the EVERLIGHT network nodes ride. The Centennial facility is under contract, the first product lines are defined, and capacity grows against orders.

The floor is built for the American industrial base, not only for our own programs. Metal additive manufacturing is in process qualification for flight components, and the customer set it serves is deliberately wider than space: defense programs, and commercial, civil, and military aviation, where qualified parts wait on supply chains that were never built for today's demand. A part is quoted from this floor only when the process behind it is qualified, and it ships with the evidence.

Satellite systems
Additive manufacturing
Capability Targets
Build-out targets
Product linesRetroreflectors, LRAs, qualified optical assemblies
Satellite systemsEnd-to-end smallsat platforms: design, manufacture, integration
Test regimesThermal-vacuum, EO/IR performance, environmental screening
PressureAmbient to 1×10⁻⁶ Torr at the chamber, held through the thermal profile
Temperature−180 °C to +150 °C measured at the test article, not at the shroud
WavefrontInterferometric wavefront error to λ/20 RMS at 632.8 nm, with the article at temperature and under vacuum
Aperture rangeUndisclosedStated on the quote. Published with the accreditation scope.
Cleanroom classUndisclosedStated per job on the quote.
Tolerance bandsUndisclosedSet against your drawing at quote. We do not publish a house tolerance, because nobody buys one.
Lead timeUndisclosedCommitted on the quote, against your article and your schedule.
Additive manufacturingMetal additive for flight components; process qualification in development, quoted only once qualified
FacilityCentennial, Colorado, 53,000 SF under contract
Quality systemAS9100-pathway QMS in development for flight hardware
TraceabilityUnbroken calibration chain to national standards, certificate of conformance per build
First revenueGround operations from Colorado, 2027
Assumptions
  • Values are build-out targets for the Centennial floor, at the maturity the badge above states.
  • Environmental values are at the test article under the stated profile, not at the chamber wall and not at ambient recovery.
  • Optical values assume a single article on a qualified fixture; the fixture is treated as part of the article, because it moves too.
  • Every measured value ships with its uncertainty budget. A value without a budget is an opinion, and this table is not the exception.

Withheld rows are withheld, not missing. Detail available under NDA.

Quality & compliance

Flight hardware is a paperwork problem too.

ITAR Registered
Registered under U.S. export controls
U.S. Small Business
U.S.-owned and operated
AS9100 Pathway
Flight-hardware quality management system in development
First Article Inspection
FAIR per AS9102 planned for flight hardware
Material Traceability
Certificate-of-conformance chain for every build
Domestic Supply Chain
Critical components sourced domestically by policy; country of origin travels with every build record

Process specifications and audit documentation available on request.

Open roles on this program

All open positions
Head of Manufacturing
Manufacturing · Colorado · $185K to $235K base
Chief Systems Engineer
Engineering · Colorado · $220K to $300K base
Precision Optical Engineer
Engineering · Colorado · $135K to $190K base
Metrology & Calibration Engineer
Engineering · Colorado · $115K to $165K base
Contracts & Compliance Manager (ITAR / DCAA)
Legal & Contracts · Colorado · $135K to $180K base
Head of Government Business Development & Capture
Business Development · Washington, D.C. Metro · $210K to $280K base
Program Manager
Programs · Colorado · $140K to $190K base
Quality / Mission Assurance Engineer
Manufacturing · Colorado · $110K to $165K base
Grants & Proposals Writer
Business Development · Colorado · $90K to $130K base
FORGE in the architecture

Revenue starts on the ground. Everything outward is built on it.

FORGE manufactures and qualifies the hardware the rest of the architecture flies. The awareness layer runs on its sensors, the mobility fleet is qualified on its floor, and lunar delivery inherits its manufacturing discipline.

NEXUS
Cislunar Domain Awareness

FORGE test data and sensor hardware feed the awareness layer NEXUS sells as a subscription.

HERMES
In-Space Mobility & Logistics

The vehicles HERMES flies are qualified on FORGE's floor first.

ATLAS
Precision Lunar Delivery

Precision lunar delivery is built on the manufacturing discipline FORGE establishes now.

Send us a part, or a program.

Component and assembly work quotes in 24 to 48 hours. Program-level manufacturing and qualification discussions are available under NDA.

Request a QuoteConfigure a CampaignRequest a Briefing