Orbital Matter and EnduroSat plan 2028 in-space manufacturing mission
Orbital Matter · EnduroSat
Orbital Matter and EnduroSat plan a 2028 mission to 3D-print support booms in orbit for a 5 kilowatt solar array.
what happened
Orbital Matter and EnduroSat announced a mission planned for 2028 to deploy a roughly 5-meter, 5-kilowatt solar array using rigid support booms that Orbital Matter's printer will manufacture in orbit, per Payload. The mission follows Orbital Matter's Replicator 2 demonstration, launched in July 2026 on SpaceX's Transporter-17, which the company says proved it can 3D-print structures in the vacuum of space. EnduroSat is providing the satellite bus.
why it matters
The companies are targeting the orbital data-center market, which EnduroSat CTO Victor Danchev says will need "hundreds of kW per satellite," a power requirement that is hard to meet with solar arrays folded for a conventional launch. Orbital Matter CEO Jakub Stojek says in-orbit manufacturing lets a satellite be designed for operations rather than for surviving launch; if the approach scales, Danchev says it could cut costs to "a fraction of the current market USD/W."
for who
Orbital data-center developers, satellite bus manufacturers
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- Orbital Matter, EnduroSat
- Category
- partnership
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 2 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-11-04
- Published
- 2026-11-04 15:10 UTC