The German startup Orbital Matter said its satellite 3D printed a half-meter-long beam in space using a custom plastic. Company executives described this as the first such demonstration performed by a free-flying spacecraft in orbit, marking a step toward constructing large structures in space.
This company’s small satellite, Replicator-2, launched this summer aboard a SpaceX rideshare mission, carrying four of the company’s 3D printers. Each printer can fabricate a rigid cylindrical beam by extruding a resin filament and curing it with ultraviolet light; the company compares this process to cement and water.
The company stated that this technology is important because future spacecraft will need to generate more power and dissipate more heat into the vacuum of space, especially when serving as orbital data centers. At the same time, they must still fit within the confined space of a launch vehicle’s payload fairing. If spacecraft can build equipment in orbit, the challenges related to power and heat dissipation may become easier to address.
Jakub Stojek, CEO and co-founder of Orbital Matter, said, “Replicator 2 is the first proof that we can build arrays directly in space, sized according to mission requirements.” The company is collaborating with the European Space Agency and Thales Alenia, Europe’s leading satellite manufacturer, which also participated in the collaborative development of Replicator 2.
Today, large structures in space often resemble origami projects—large solar arrays or telescope mirrors are folded for launch and then deployed in orbit. This is a challenging engineering task, making the idea of manufacturing and assembling these structures in space highly appealing. NASA has funded several related attempts, including a mission by Redwire in 2023 that 3D-printed structural beams inside a vacuum chamber, though the mission never actually launched.
The two printers originally designed by Orbital Matter for deploying flexible solar arrays were intended for use in space, but an anomaly rendered one of them inoperable. Nevertheless, the successfully manufactured truss deployed the solar array, serving as a significant proof of concept. Previous attempts at 3D printing in microgravity had been limited to pressurized environments within the International Space Station.
Robert Ihnatisin, Chief Technology Officer of Orbital Matter, told TechCrunch: “That’s why we’ve put so many printers on the same satellite. We’d rather learn in orbit and adjust the software as needed, rather than spending years testing on the ground for every possible scenario.”
The length of this truss is limited by the amount of resin carried on the satellite; company engineers believe a 100-meter truss is feasible. For comparison, the solar arrays on SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini satellite—one of the most powerful mass-produced satellites in orbit—are 20 meters long.
Orbital Matter was founded in 2022 by Ihnatsin and Stojek, formerly of the 3D printing company Formlabs, and has completed a $3 million seed funding round.
Currently, Orbital Matter is preparing another demonstration mission scheduled for launch in 2028. This mission will test a larger version of the printer on a bigger satellite, with the company aiming for it to deploy a solar array capable of generating 5 kilowatts of power. The company describes this as a “stepping stone” toward achieving deployments of over 100 kilowatts per wing by 2030.
The company is also collaborating with several satellite manufacturers who are considering integrating their PADS (Printed Auxiliary Deployment System) into their spacecraft to extend solar panels, antennas, or other components.