Q&A with Cory Heath, Thermal Engineer

Meet Cory Heath, Thermal Engineer at Apex!

Cory was the second intern to be hired full-time at Apex, joining back when the company was just 40 employees at the original Apex HQ in Culver City. He returned to Apex full-time to join the Thermal Engineering team after graduating from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. While at school, Cory gained valuable hands-on hardware experience from being on the Testing, Recovery, & Integration Team on the Cal Poly Pomona Liquid Rocket Lab team.

As a Thermal Engineer at Apex, Cory is the thermal RE (responsible engineer) for Apex’s second satellite platform, Nova, which will fly for the first time later this year. His work directly supports mission success by defining and validating the spacecraft's thermal architecture, and by developing analyses, requirements, and test approaches that ensure all subsystems perform reliably across the extreme hot and cold environments encountered in orbit.

Learn more about Cory below:

Q: What excites you the most about working at a company like Apex?

I love the opportunities that we have to take ownership of the new products we are designing and the level of involvement we have in building prototypes and first articles. I really enjoy bringing something to life from nothing, and at Apex, our engineers are able to shepherd a product through the whole design, manufacture, test, and flight life cycle.  

I also love how determined Apex is as a collective, we are all very willing to go the extra mile (or two). Our teams have been working super hard to design and build our buses with the goal of becoming the ubiquitous platforms in the industry. I hold down my small part in the machine and spin my gear as fast as I can because I know everyone here is doing the same.  

Q: Why are you excited about space?

Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by the infinite possibilities hidden in space. Now working at Apex, I have some inside scoop on what we are sending up there, and it’s some pretty cool stuff. For example, beaming down solar energy to use here on Earth is the type of Sci-Fi tech that furthers my fascination of space. I’m most excited for our upcoming launch this summer, on which I send my first hardware to space!  

Q: How do you see the role of Thermal Engineer at Apex, and how is it supporting the mass-manufacturing of Apex’s satellite platforms?

Our senior-most Thermal Engineer, Chuck Phillips, once put it like this: "Having an understanding of many different areas really means the Thermal Engineer is a Thermal 'Systems' Engineer."  

As a Thermal Engineer, I interface with people across disciplines as it relates to my thermal work; in the process, I learn about their systems in more depth. I love learning how all these unique systems harmonize in order to make a bus.  

In terms of supporting mass-manufacturing, I work with our Manufacturing Engineers and Technicians to see how we can simplify integration processes to make their lives easier. Our Thermal Team also does a great job of collaborating with another so that thermal designs are similar between products. The fewer unique parts to track, the easier it’ll be to keep pumping these satellite buses out of our factory doors.  

Q: What has surprised or impressed you the most so far during your time at Apex?

The company’s growth has been incredible. I've been working full-time for a year now, but I started as an intern back in summer '24 when we were at our first office space. It's been unbelievable to see our company transition from a crowded room of 40 people to a crowded Factory of 200+ people in such a short time span. It’s not just the number of people that have grown either. That first office space housed ~1.5 Aries buses when I started, now our Factory is producing numerous Aries buses and our first Nova bus all at the same time!  

Q: Tell us a bit about what you do in your free time.

Outside of work, I love making art in any medium I can. The forms I practice most often are photography, painting, music, and pottery. Being an engineer by day and an artist by night/weekends fulfills both sides of my creative mind.  

I just submitted some of my paintings for consideration in an art show. The color palette for that collection of paintings was inspired by the temperature contours I see in my everyday work in the office. There are also stirrings of a band starting here with some Apex employees — the best of both worlds!