A tiny furnace, the size of a microwave, has just demonstrated something big: it can be switched on and reach roughly 1,000°C while orbiting hundreds of kilometres above the Earth.
Space Forge, a Cardiff startup, says that the test aboard its ForgeStar‑1 satellite proves the basic conditions needed to start making ultra‑pure semiconductor materials in low Earth orbit. The image that made mission control go quiet was simple and strange — an orange glow from inside a chamber, plasma dancing where only engineers expected it to. “One of the most exciting moments of my life,” payload operations lead Veronica Viera told reporters.
Why manufacture chips in space?
On the face of it, sending manufacturing into orbit sounds like an answer in search of a question. But the physics makes a persuasive case. Microgravity prevents convection currents and sedimentation that, on Earth, nudge atoms out of place as crystals grow. Combine that with the near‑perfect vacuum of space and you get fewer contaminants and fewer defects in a material’s atomic lattice. Space Forge’s CEO Joshua Western told the BBC his team expects some space‑grown semiconductors to be “up to 4,000 times purer” than current terrestrial equivalents.
It isn’t just academic: purer crystals can mean faster, cooler, and more reliable power electronics — the chips that live in 5G equipment, electric vehicles and high‑performance computing. Other companies and labs are already exploring related ideas (from drug crystals to 3D‑printed tissues), and even major tech players are thinking about putting heavy computational infrastructure off‑planet; for broader industry context see Google’s work on orbital data centres in Project Suncatcher.
What Space Forge did — and why it matters
ForgeStar‑1 hitched a ride on a SpaceX rideshare in June 2025 and spent months in orbit before the team finally ran the furnace this winter. The satellite’s microwave‑sized “factory” includes a high‑temperature furnace that Space Forge reports reached about 1,000°C (1,832°F) and produced visible plasma — a first for an autonomous, free‑flying commercial satellite, the company says.
That’s a milestone for two reasons. First, it proves the hardware can operate in the thermal, vacuum and radiation environment of LEO. Second, it shows the company can generate and observe the high‑temperature conditions needed for crystal growth without the logistics and cost of keeping humans on board. "Generating plasma on orbit represents a fundamental shift," Joshua Western told SpaceNews, emphasizing the difference between experiments on a shared, crewed platform like the ISS and a dedicated unmanned factory.
Space Forge’s roadmap aims beyond silicon: materials named in its plans include gallium nitride, silicon carbide, aluminium nitride and even diamond — substances used in power electronics and communication hardware. The next design iteration is intended to produce enough material for roughly 10,000 chips per flight.
The practical hurdles: returning stuff to Earth, scaling and sustainability
Making a pristine crystal in orbit is half the battle. Getting it home without burning it to nothing is the other half. Most re‑entry heat shields are sacrificial; they char away to protect a payload. Space Forge has a different idea: Pridwen, a deployable heat shield inspired by King Arthur’s mythical shield and described as an origami‑style, high‑temperature fabric structure that increases surface area to radiate heat rather than absorb it. ForgeStar‑1 carries an early version of Pridwen for testing.
Beyond re‑entry, there are economic and environmental questions. Tom’s Hardware and others have noted the tension between the potential resource and energy savings from cleaner, higher‑yield space manufacturing and the emissions and material cost of launch operations. Space Forge argues that for some high‑value, hard‑to‑perfect materials the payoff will justify the flights — but that remains to be proven at scale.
There’s also a scientific learning curve. Space Forge plans follow‑on tests to map how plasma and molten material behave in microgravity so that future factories can run repeatable processes without human intervention. If those map neatly onto industrial requirements, orbital fabs could complement terrestrial supply chains rather than replace them.
A small launch for a potentially large industry
This mission sits with other early experiments that signal a broader shift: companies are moving from asking whether manufacturing can happen in space to asking whether it should, and how to make it economical. The coming year already looks busy for orbiting innovation — if you want a view of what’s on the calendar and why the space sector feels energized, consider the wider launch and exploration plans outlined in space previews for 2026.
ForgeStar‑1 will eventually burn up on re‑entry, but not before it has fed engineers on the ground with valuable data. The mission is a clear, concrete demonstration that processes once confined to labs on the International Space Station can be moved onto purpose‑built commercial satellites. Whether that will produce a steady stream of chips powering phones, cars and power grids — and whether it will do so sustainably — will depend on the next tests: controlled re‑entries, larger production runs, and the tricky accounting of launch costs versus manufacturing benefits.
For now, Cardiff’s team has proved one stubborn fact of engineering: it’s easier to imagine a future when someone has already turned the key and watched the furnace glow.