NATO backs Welsh startup building space factory for ‘supermaterials’

Welsh startup Space Forge has raised $30mn to advance its first commercial in-orbit manufacturing satellite, ForgeStar-2. The NATO Innovation Fund led the funding round, the largest Series A financing in UK space tech history. Space Forge’s demonstrator — the ForgeStar-1 — is set to launch from the US on a SpaceX rocket this year. The oven-sized satellite will then harness the conditions of space to produce “supermaterials” that are impossible to make on Earth. Joshua Western, Space Forge’s CEO and co-founder, compared the technology to a sourdough starter — a small but potent base for growing something much bigger. “Our…

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