Space Forge

Space Forge Limited

Type| Private

Traded as

| Space Forge
Industry| Space industry
Founded| 2018; 8 years ago (2018)
Founders| Joshua Western and Andrew Bacon
Headquarters|

Cardiff

United Kingdom

Products| ForgeStar

Number of employees

| 70 (2024)
Website| spaceforge.co.uk

Space Forge Limited is a British aerospace manufacturing company headquartered in Cardiff, Wales. Its focus is to develop reusable on-orbit fabrication capabilities to enable the novel production of semiconductors and alloys in microgravity.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Facilities
* 3 ForgeStar
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## History

Space Forge was founded in 2018 by Joshua Western and Andrew Bacon, whilst they were working at Thales Alenia Space. In its early stages, the company started in a garage in Bristol, England, before going on to leverage the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult (CSAC) in Newport, Wales.[1][2]

In early 2020, Space Forge secured a total of £600,000 including: £100,000 from Innovate UK; £150,000 from 12 members of the Bristol Private Equity Club and additional funds by the Development Bank of Wales.[3][1] The company secured an additional £329,326 of funding from the UK government to support space manufacturing in partnership with CSAC and Clyde Space.[4][5] The Development Bank of Wales announced in July 2021 that Space Forge had raised an undisclosed amount as part of a seed funding round led by Type One Ventures and Space Fund.[6] Tarek Waked of Type One Ventures, who later joined the board of Space Forge, described this as "the largest seed round for an in-space manufacturing company to date".[7] Investors included George T. Whitesides (former Chief Space Officer and CEO of Virgin Galactic[8]) and Dylan Taylor (chairman and CEO of Voyager Space Holdings[8]). The Bristol Private Equity Club increased the groups stake, with 26 members investing a total of £500,000.[9] By this point Space Forge had 15 employees.[9] It was later revealed that Space Forge had raised £7.6 million of initial seed capital.[10]

By September 2021, Space Forge had moved its manufacturing base to Cardiff.[11] In September 2021, Space Forge secured a €2 million contract from the European Space Agency for a commercial space transportation service as part of ESA's Boost! program. Space Forge intends to leverage its ForgeStar platform in the delivery of the contract and is working as part of a consortium including Clyde Space, Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station, CSAC, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.[11][12] By July 2022, the company had 40 full-time staff based in Cardiff.[13]

In July 2024, the NATO Innovation Fund announced its support for Space Forge alongside 3 other startups.[14] Combined with financing from the World Fund and the British Business Bank, Space Forge's Series-A brought it £22.6 million, the largest of any UK spacetech company to date.

In September 2025, Space Forge announced an MoU with US-based United Semiconductors in Los Alamitos on plans to design space-base semiconductor manufacturing equipment and the processors themselves.[15]

## Facilities

Space Forge built the first satellite manufacturing facility in Wales, including a clean room and support for payload integration.[16] The facility in Rumney, Cardiff, is 7,500 square feet (700 m2) in size and was previously used in the manufacture of burger vans.[13]

## ForgeStar

ForgeStar is an on-orbit manufacturing satellite platform leveraging microgravity in the production of semi-conductors and pharmaceuticals.[17] Each vehicle will consist of an orbital module and a microgravity capsule, operating at an altitude of 300 miles (480 km) for a period of one to six months.[10][17] The company aims for each satellite to be able to return from space, enable its refurbishment, and then for it to be returned to service on-orbit.[17]

ForgeStar-0 was to be the first Welsh-built satellite and was launched by Virgin Orbit on its inaugural mission from Newquay Airport (Spaceport Cornwall), on the first ever satellite launches from the United Kingdom.[13][18] This first satellite was not designed to survive reentry but was to act as a prototype to validate on-orbit manufacturing capabilities, testing the deployment of a low cost return technology.[19] As part of this first mission, the company was to work in partnership with US based Cosmic Shielding, to test the survivability of a new composite radiation shield material known as "Plasteel".[19] Monitoring of the material was to be provided by on board cameras.[19] As ForgeStar-0 would return from orbit, Lumi Space was planned to trial laser tracking technology to monitor the satellite's descent through the atmosphere.[20]

ForgeStar-0 launched on 9 January 2023 from Spaceport Cornwall. The launching rocket was the LauncherOne of Virgin Orbit. The launch ended in failure and ForgeStar-0 did not achieve orbit.[21]

ForgeStar-1 was launched on 27 June 2025 by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission Transporter-14.[22] It has successfully activated its furnace at 1000°C, producing plasma and marking a further advance toward the manufacture of high performance semiconductors.[23][24] The satellite is between 10 and 11 times larger than ForgeStar-0 and has been set for a safe, planned, orbital termination, meaning that it will not return to Earth.[25][22][23][26]

ForgeStar-2 will be larger still, and will aim to produce materials with a value exceeding the cost of the launch.[2] The company hopes to maintain a cadence of 10–12 flights a year.[2]

## See also

* Varda Space

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Will the next generation of British Manufacturing happen in Outer Space?" (in en). 22 May 2020. https://developmentbank.wales/news-and-events/will-next-generation-british-manufacturing-happen-outer-space.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "The Engineer – Out of this world: How Welsh firm Space Forge plans to take manufacturing off-planet" (in en). 13 June 2022. https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/in-depth/out-of-this-world-how-welsh-firm-space-forge-plans-to-take-manufacturing-off-planet/.
3. ↑ Baker, Hannah (17 April 2020). "Bristol space company plans to expand into Wales after landing £250k" (in en). https://www.business-live.co.uk/manufacturing/bristol-space-forge-investment-expand-18105508.
4. ↑ "[Withdrawn Government funds UK companies at the forefront of space innovation"] (in en). 8 March 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-funds-uk-companies-at-the-forefront-of-space-innovation.
5. ↑ Williams, Alun (10 December 2020). "UKSA's National Space Innovation Programme funds 21 UK organisations" (in en). https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/uksas-national-space-innovation-programme-funds-21-uk-organisations-2020-12/.
6. ↑ "Space Forge raises seed round" (in en). 7 August 2021. https://developmentbank.wales/news-and-events/space-forge-raises-seed-round.
7. ↑ "Type One Ventures raises investment target" (in en-US). 15 December 2021. https://spacenews.com/type-one-ventures-second-fund/.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Virgin Galactic Snags NASA Chief of Staff as CEO". socalTECH.com. 17 May 2010. http://www.socaltech.com/virgin_galactic_snags_nasa_chief_of_staff_as_ceo/s-0028664.html. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Arthur, Andrew (9 July 2021). "Bristol space firm backed to develop manufacturing satellite" (in en). https://www.business-live.co.uk/manufacturing/bristol-space-business-gets-funding-21008521.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "UK space firm secures £7.6m to fund trial of factory satellites" (in en). 18 December 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/18/uk-space-firm-secures-76m-to-fund-trial-of-factory-satellites.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Barry, Sion (27 September 2021). "Cardiff space tech firm developing reusable satellites gets major funding boost" (in en). https://www.business-live.co.uk/technology/cardiff-space-tech-firm-developing-21688635.
12. ↑ Agency, European Space. "Microgravity on demand with Earth return through ESA's Boost" (in en). https://phys.org/news/2021-09-microgravity-demand-earth-esa-boost.html.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Space: First Welsh satellite set to be launched later in 2022" (in en-GB). BBC News. 11 July 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-61978510.
14. ↑ Oliver, Matt; Field, Matthew (18 June 2024). "Nato’s $1bn fund backs British start-up to build space factories" (in en-GB). https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/06/18/british-start-up-spaceforge-factory-space-wins-nato-backing/.
15. ↑ Russell, Laurence (2025-10-03). "Space Forge signs MoU with United Semiconductors on microgravity chips manufacturing" (in en). https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/space-forge-signs-mou-with-united-semiconductors-on-microgravity-chips-manufacturing/.
16. ↑ "SpaceForge Unveils New Welsh Facilities For The Development Of Their Returnable, Reusable Smallsat Platform – SatNews". https://news.satnews.com/2021/11/01/spaceforge-unveils-new-welsh-facilities-for-the-development-of-their-returnable-reusable-smallsat-platform/.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 "Space Forge Is Going To Make Smallsat Return From Space… Far Easier – SatNews". https://news.satnews.com/2021/10/03/space-forge-is-going-to-make-smallsat-return-from-space-far-easier/.
18. ↑ Kelvey, Jon (2022-03-11). "Space Forge and Virgin Orbit aim to launch first satellite from UK this summer" (in en). https://www.independent.co.uk/space/space-forge-virgin-orbit-satellite-launch-rocket-cornwall-spaceport-b2032463.html.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 "Welsh satellite company partners with US firm to test new space radiation technology in first launch" (in en-GB). 27 April 2022. https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-satellite-company-partners-with-us-firm-to-test-new-space-radiation-technology-in-first-launch/.
20. ↑ "First satellite made in Wales to be launched into space this summer" (in en). 28 June 2022. https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2022-06-28/first-satellite-made-in-wales-to-be-launched-into-space-this-summer.
21. ↑ Graham, William (2023-01-09). "Virgin Orbit fails on first mission from the UK with Start Me Up" (in en-US). https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/01/virgin-orbit-start-me-up/.
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Flaherty, Nick (2025-06-27). "Space Forge launches first manufacturing satellite" (in en-US). https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/space-forge-launches-first-manufacturing-satellite/.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Space Forge Ignites Orbital Furnace, Hits 1,000°C Milestone on ForgeStar-1 – SatNews". https://news.satnews.com/2025/12/31/space-forge-ignites-orbital-furnace-hits-1000c-milestone-on-forgestar-1/.
24. ↑ "Space Forge generates plasma aboard ForgeStar-1 satellite". https://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2025/dec/spaceforge-311225.shtml.
25. ↑ "UK space launch: What next for Space Forge after mission failure?" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2023-01-22. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64340906.
26. ↑ "Space Forge successfully launches ForgeStar®-1 - the UK’s first in-space manufacturing satellite" (in en-GB). https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/space-forge-successfully-launches-forgestar-1-the-uks-first-in-space-manufacturing-satellite/.

## External links

* "SPACE FORGE LIMITED". Companies House. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11646188.

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