Orbital Matter 3D-prints first rigid beam in orbit
Original: Orbital Matter 3D-printed the first rigid beam in the vacuum of space
Why This Matters
In-orbit manufacturing could remove rocket fairing size as a hard limit on spacecraft scale.
German startup Orbital Matter 3D-printed a 0.5-meter rigid beam in vacuum aboard its Replicator 2 satellite, launched on a SpaceX rideshare this summer — the first such feat by a free-flying spacecraft.
Orbital Matter's Replicator 2 satellite, launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission in summer 2026, carried four onboard 3D printers that extruded coils of resin cured by ultraviolet light — a process the company likens to cement and water. The result: a half-meter rigid cylindrical beam, printed in the vacuum of space without a pressurized environment. Previous in-orbit 3D printing was confined to the ISS interior.
CEO Jakub Stojek called it "the first proof that we can simply build the array in space, at whatever size the mission demands." The company is partnering with ESA and Thales Alenia, which collaborated on Replicator 2. Two of the four printers were designed to deploy a flexible solar array; one failed due to an anomaly, but the boom that did print successfully deployed the array.
The motivation is practical: future spacecraft — especially proposed orbital data centers — need larger structures for power generation and heat dissipation, yet must still fit inside a rocket fairing. In-orbit construction sidesteps that constraint entirely. Engineers believe 100-meter booms are achievable with sufficient onboard resin. For context, SpaceX's Starlink V2 satellites use 20-meter solar arrays. NASA funded a similar effort with Redwire in 2023 that 3D-printed beams in a vacuum chamber but never reached orbit.