To get to space, we have to make the necessary products to help get us there. While more space manufacturing companies have launched in the past decade, one of the most pioneering of them all remains Made In Space, a space manufacturing company that develops state-of-the-art technology to support exploration, national security and builds upon sustainable space efforts.

Established in 2010, Made In Space’s technology was innovated from NASA foundational research demonstrating that microgravity additive manufacturing was viable. Founded with the purpose of supporting Earth-independent exploration through manufacturing, the company has pursued a large portfolio of revolutionary space technologies. 

By 2011, the company was supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, which helped develop additive manufacturing technology that operates fully in microgravity. By 2012, NASA granted them a Phase I SBIR grant to help develop the AMF (the additive manufacturing facility) aboard the International Space Station, giving huge momentum to the company through the opportunity. The following year, Made In Space joined forces with NASA MSFC to create and fly a 3D printing experiment in Zero-G to the ISS. In late November, the companies successfully launched and remotely operated a 3D payload, building the first parts ever made solely in space. With this successful 3D printing mission, Made In Space now continues to build and create technologically for the AMF, which is utilized by global organizations that want to manufacture in space.

By 2016, NASA and Made In Space joined forces again to expand on their vision for in-space manufacturing. Together, they developed the Archinaut program, an in-space manufacturing and assembly capability that builds large space structures in orbit.

In 2017, Made In Space’s capabilities for engineering revolutionary space technologies was further demonstrated by their creation and launch of the Optical Fiber payload to the ISS. The launch was revolutionary technology seeks to develop optical fiber in orbit and helps to herald the capability for new classes of materials to be made in space for in-space application.

After a successful testing campaign of Archinaut’s large-scale structure manufacturing technology in a thermal vacuum, the Made In Space team then showed in-space viability of the program manufacturing and technology assemblies, making the program ready for spaceflight.

Last year, NASA awarded Made In Space a contract to showcase Archinaut’s progress in technology by building a smallsat power system in orbit, a feat that was the first of its kind and continues to open the doorway to the final frontier.

Today, Made In Space remains the manufacturing leader of space technologies in the NewSpace sector. Their portfolio has since expanded to the development of technologies ranging from space-enabled industrial crystals to space telescopes and remote sensing. Pioneering a new generation of structure in space, Made In Space offers capabilities that anticipate the sector’s needs in a growing space economy.

(Featured image from Made In Space)