en.Wedoany.com Reported - UK space manufacturing company Space Forge has received a £10 million grant from the European Space Agency's General Support Technology Programme to develop a new deployable thermal protection system called Pridwen, designed to protect spacecraft during safe re-entry into the atmosphere and enable recovery upon return to Earth. The funding is provided through the UK Space Agency's investment in the European Space Agency.
Headquartered in Cardiff, Space Forge specializes in producing semiconductor materials in microgravity environments, which enable material properties unattainable on Earth. Named after the shield from Arthurian legend, Pridwen aims to ensure safe atmospheric re-entry and satellite recovery. Traditional heat shields are typically rigid structures or tiles fixed to spacecraft, adding weight, occupying space, and being difficult to reuse. Pridwen is designed to deploy during re-entry, forming a larger protective surface that helps shield the spacecraft from extreme heat and pressure, while making the system lighter, easier to recover, and more reusable. This mission will help bring Pridwen to full commercial readiness, enabling frequent and reliable return of cargo from space, which is crucial for the development of the space manufacturing industry.
Joshua Western, CEO and co-founder of Space Forge, said the company is delighted to receive this funding to help commercialize Pridwen, a technology key to ensuring the safe return of materials to Earth and unlocking the future of space manufacturing. Through the ForgeStar®-1 mission, the company has proven it can create the right manufacturing environment in space for next-generation semiconductor materials, and this newly funded mission will demonstrate the ability to bring products to market.
Space Minister Liz Lloyd stated that this investment demonstrates the UK's commitment to staying at the forefront of the rapidly growing space sector, and the technology developed by Space Forge could make bringing materials back from space more like a routine delivery service than a one-off mission. The UK is proud to support a company leading in a new frontier of space technology.
This announcement follows the success of Space Forge's first orbital mission, "The Forge Awakens," during which the company successfully generated plasma on its ForgeStar®-1 satellite. This achievement marked a world first in commercial space manufacturing and proved that conditions necessary for producing next-generation semiconductor materials can be created and controlled in low Earth orbit. As the first free-flying commercial semiconductor manufacturing platform ever operated in space, ForgeStar®-1 demonstrated that conditions for growing advanced materials can be established in orbit. The next challenge is to reliably and repeatedly bring these materials back to Earth. Pridwen is the key technology to achieve the next step. The newly funded mission will demonstrate safe, routine return capabilities, bridging the missing link between space manufacturing and commercial delivery on Earth.
By combining orbital crystal growth with ground-based processing, Space Forge aims to establish a new hybrid manufacturing model. Space-grown semiconductor seeds will be returned to Earth and mass-produced, yielding materials with performance characteristics surpassing those produced by traditional terrestrial processes. The successful demonstration of Pridwen will provide proof of concept for reliable return and recovery, paving the way for commercial space manufacturing services and the routine delivery of high-value materials from orbit to Earth-based customers.
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