A satellite built by the German startup Orbital Matter has 3D-printed a half-metre rigid beam in orbit, which its executives call a first for a free-flying spacecraft, TechCrunch reports. The beam is made from a custom plastic resin that ultraviolet light cures as it is extruded.
The satellite, Replicator 2, launched on a SpaceX rideshare this summer with four of the company’s printers. Two were meant to deploy a flexible solar array, and an anomaly disabled one of them. The beam that was made still deployed the array.
Chief executive Jakub Stojek said it is the first proof that arrays can be built in space at any size. The chief technology officer, Robert Ihnatisin, said fitting many printers to one satellite let the team learn in orbit instead of spending years testing on the ground.
Large space structures are folded for launch, then unfolded. Redwire printed beams in a vacuum chamber in 2023 with NASA money but never flew them, and earlier microgravity printing was confined to the pressurised space station.
Boom length is limited by the resin on board. Engineers believe 100-metre booms are feasible, against the 20 metres of a Starlink V2 solar array. A 2028 mission will test a larger printer aiming at a 5 kilowatt array, which the company calls a stepping stone to more than 100 kilowatts per wing by 2030.
The European Space Agency and Thales Alenia collaborated on Replicator 2, and the company says it is talking to satellite builders about extending panels and antennas.
The first claim is the company’s own, and the cause of the anomaly is not given. Nor is funding for the 2028 mission beyond a $3 million seed round, or any customer who has committed.
