Pioneering scientists and entrepreneurs are trying to manufacture products in space from cutting edge cancer drugs to game-changing semiconductors.

The next frontier of industrial innovation is quite literally way over your head: A constellation of startups, industry giants, and research institutions is experimenting with manufacturing in Earth’s orbit.

Turns out, skirting labor laws isn’t the main impetus for the orbital industrial revolution. Boosters envision harnessing low gravity in orbit for manufacturing processes that can’t be achieved on Earth. They’re working to turn space stations into factories for cutting-edge products, like superior cancer drugs and next-generation semiconductors.

Why now? While the concept of low-gravity manufacturing has been floated for decades, the dizzying pace of space commercialization has only recently made it possible to move beyond the blueprint. The private space sector has become a dominant force in space exploration with companies like SpaceX offering increasingly cheap and frequent trips to orbit.

• There were a record 212 successful orbital launches last year, compared with 86 in 2017.

• Reusable rockets have made launches cheaper. The per-pound cost of launching supplies into space went down to as low as $1,300 in 2022, compared with the $30,000 per pound NASA charged for shuttle launches before 2011, according to CNBC.

Unlike Mars colonization, celestial manufacturing initiatives now exist outside of billionaires’ imaginations, and several promising prototypes have cropped up on Earth in recent years. So, let’s train our telescope on efforts to commercialize the cosmos—which could benefit earthlings more concretely than exploring the far side of Jupiter.

Out-of-this world biotech

Several efforts are underway to manufacture medicine in space, where the low-gravity environment facilitates the creation of game-changing chemical structures.

One ambitious cosmic venture is the UK startup BioOrbit, which plans to develop cancer immunotherapies at the International Space Station (ISS). It’s working on formulating antibody treatments with crystallized proteins that can be created only in a microgravity. This would allow for higher-concentration drugs that can be administered quickly at home, as opposed to Earth-made immunotherapies that typically require a multi-hour visit to a medical facility.

The company plans to test the production process on the ISS next year, and it wants a larger pharma company to get on board as a partner for another demo flight in 2025. Pharmaceutical giants like Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb have also been sending similar experiments to space for years.

Formulating crystallized protein drugs in space “is a high-value proposition,” according to Catriona Jamieson, who leads research at the University of California at San Diego’s Astrobiotechnology Hub.

• Her team has been accelerating the search for breakthrough cancer treatments by sending malignant tumors to space, where they grow at much higher rates than on Earth, allowing for a compressed research timeline.

• An experiment conducted on the ISS earlier this year led to the creation of the experimental drug rebecsinib, which blocks a gene that causes cancer cells to multiply. 

Jamieson co-founded Aspera Biomedicines to commercialize the therapeutic she calls the cancer “kill switch” with hopes to start clinical trials early next year. She told Morning Brew that her company plans to partner with NASA to develop a pill version in space using protein crystallization and hopes to eventually manufacture ingredients there.

Space organs

Earthling patients might soon be getting organ transplants of celestial origin. Several companies are experimenting with growing human tissue in space, a process that gets hindered by Earth’s gravity, which flattens cells into 2D form.

Redwire Corporation successfully grew a knee meniscus in its BioFabrication Facility on the ISS last year.

Connecticut-based startup Lambda Vision is hoping to restore eyesight to patients with a rare genetic disorder by manufacturing artificial retina implants in space. The process of stacking ultra-thin layers that make up the disced organ demands precision that’s easier to achieve in low-gravity levitation. The company has already produced 10 test retinas on the ISS and is now working on scaling the process.

Space factory

It’s not just medicine: UK startup Space Forge is attempting to use outer space conditions to turbocharge superconductors. The “lack of atmosphere, the pressure, the temperature, and the lack of contaminants create an environment that leads to the production of a much purer starting material” for semiconductors, Space Forge President Michelle Flemming told Morning Brew. She says that semiconductors with fewer imperfections are more efficient and reduce emissions.

Meanwhile, California-based startup Flawless Photonics is using space weightlessness to manufacture fiber-optic cables (the kind that underpin telecommunications). Earlier this year, it produced 3 miles of optic cable on the ISS. The company hopes that testing will show the cable to have 10 times fewer imperfections than any comparable material created on Earth. Experts say it’s a major milestone for ramping up commercial-scale space manufacturing that would enable more energy-efficient undersea cables.

Simpler logistics

Space manufacturing businesses can’t do it on their own. An ecosystem of companies serves their needs.

Yuri, a German space research startup, creates low-gravity lab hardware that can be used in orbit and subcontracts with companies who want to send their experiments to space.

Yuri’s Head of Business Development Felix Steiner told Morning Brew that while research is slowed down by launch waitlists and limited capacity on the ISS, space R&D will be sped up when more launches and tech for in-orbit science are available. In an attempt to diversify away from NASA and SpaceX, Yuri has partnered with German satellite startup Atmos Space Cargo. It will install its lab for automated experiments on Atmos’s Phoenix Capsule, which will be launched into low orbit by a German rocket and splash down near the Azores.

Colorado-based Sierra Space is similarly focused on moving small batches of supplies between Earth and orbit more efficiently.

• It developed the Dream Chaser, the first private space plane with the ability to touch down on any landing strip that takes a Boeing 737. It will ferry supplies and astronauts to the ISS with flexible options for where to end its return journey.

• The company also uses orbital capsules that can reenter Earth’s atmosphere. It is currently testing the Sierra Space Ghost uncrewed return capsule, which will be able to deliver experiments from space directly to research facilities.

The company expects pharma providers to be eager customers for rapid return services, according to its VP of Orbital Missions and Services Erik Daehler. He said, “We might take a package off of our space station, put it into our Ghost, and then our Ghost will reenter it to the backyard of the tech center [on Earth]…where the biopharma company wants to see what their experiment did,” Daehler said. He thinks getting experiments back to Earth for analysis ASAP “as opposed to waiting for us to fill up an entire Dream Chaser full of a ton and a half of cargo” could justify the extra costs.

Sierra Space is also working on adapting its tech to speed up logistics on Earth. It wants the Space Ghost capsule to be able to deliver emergency cargo to any spot on the globe within 90 minutes . It’s intended for use by the military or for civilian search and rescue operations.

The countdown is on for more space labs: Several new space stations are under construction as alternatives to the ISS, which is jointly operated by NASA and the Russian Space Agency, a partnership with an uncertain future. Vast, Sierra Space, and Axiom Space are racing to launch their own commercial space stations in the next couple of years, which would house researchers conducting more manufacturing experiments. —SK

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