Space Forge, a Cardiff-based in-space manufacturing startup focused on producing semiconductor materials in microgravity, has secured £10 million from the European Space Agency's General Support Technology Programme, funded through the UK Space Agency's investment in ESA. The funding will support a mission to design, build, launch and return Pridwen, a new fold-out heat shield system built to protect spacecraft returning to Earth.
Semiconductors power many modern electronic devices. Producing them in microgravity enables the creation of materials with properties that cannot be achieved on Earth. Space Forge's ForgeStar platform is designed to grow advanced semiconductor materials in low Earth orbit, with the critical next step being the reliable return of those materials to customers on the ground.
Pridwen - named after the legendary shield of King Arthur - is designed to deploy during atmospheric re-entry, creating a larger protective surface that shields the spacecraft from extreme heat and pressure. Traditional heat shields are typically fixed, rigid structures or tiles attached to a spacecraft, which can add weight, take up space and be difficult to reuse. Pridwen's deployable design makes the system lighter, easier to recover and more practical to reuse.
The newly funded mission will bring Pridwen to full commercial readiness, demonstrating safe and routine return capability. By combining orbital crystal growth with terrestrial processing, Space Forge aims to establish a hybrid manufacturing model in which space-grown semiconductor seeds are returned to Earth and scaled, enabling production of materials with performance characteristics that cannot be achieved through conventional methods.
This announcement follows the success of Space Forge's first orbital mission, The Forge Awakens, during which the company successfully generated plasma aboard its ForgeStar-1 satellite - a world-first for commercial in-space manufacturing. As the first free-flying commercial semiconductor manufacturing platform ever operated in space, ForgeStar-1 demonstrated that the conditions required to grow advanced materials can be created and controlled in low Earth orbit. Successful demonstration of Pridwen will provide proof of concept for reliable return and recovery, paving the way for commercial in-space manufacturing services and the routine delivery of high-value materials from orbit.
We're thrilled to be awarded the GSTP funding to help bring Pridwen to commercial readiness. This proprietary technology is key to enabling the safe return of our materials to Earth, which in turn unlocks the future of in-space manufacturing. With our ForgeStar-1 mission we proved we can create the right manufacturing environment for next generation semiconductor materials in space, with this newly funded mission, we can prove our ability to deliver products to market.
Today's investment shows our commitment to keeping Britain at the forefront of the fast-growing space sector. Space Forge is developing technology that could make bringing materials back from space more like a regular delivery service than a one-off mission. We are proud to back a British company leading the way in a new area of space technology.
