Tendeg

Tendeg is a Louisville, Colorado-based deployable space antenna company founded in 2016, specializing in precision mesh reflector antennas for synthetic aperture radar (SAR), communications, and science missions — with over 25 systems flown across commercial and government missions at 100% on-orbit deployment success, including more than 10 high-precision SAR antenna reflectors deployed for Capella Space's commercial X-band SAR constellation.

Tendeg's core product is a precision deployable mesh reflector: a large parabolic reflector antenna surface woven from a tensioned metallic mesh (typically gold-plated molybdenum wire for thermal stability and RF reflectivity) supported by deployable ribbed frames, struts, and tensioning structures that unfurl from a compact stowed package after satellite deployment. The mesh reflector can achieve very large apertures (1 to 6+ meters in diameter) while folding into the volume of a briefcase-sized stowed package — critical for small satellites where the entire bus might fit in a shoebox but the mission requires a large antenna aperture for the radar cross-section sensitivity or downlink gain the mission needs.

For SAR satellites, aperture size directly determines synthetic aperture radar resolution and swath width — a larger real aperture enables a longer synthetic aperture to be formed, yielding finer cross-range resolution. Capella Space's early X-band SAR constellations used Tendeg reflectors to achieve sub-meter resolution imagery from satellites small enough for rideshare launches, enabling Capella's rapid deployment of commercial SAR capability at dramatically lower cost than traditional large SAR satellites. The 100% deployment success rate across all 25+ flown systems is commercially critical in an industry where a single deployment failure destroys the entire mission investment.

Tendeg's manufacturing process involves precision tooling to ensure the mesh reflector's parabolic shape accuracy meets the antenna gain and pattern specifications, validated through RF characterization and photogrammetry measurements of deployed shape. The company works with NASA on science mission antennas requiring specific frequency bands and polarization combinations, and with Lockheed Martin on government communications satellite antennas.

Competitors include Harris Corporation (now L3Harris) for large deployable mesh reflectors, MMA Design (tape spring booms), Opterus R&D (origami composites), and RUAG Space's deployable reflectors. Tendeg's SAR-specific track record with Capella is a key commercial differentiator.