How can commercial space operations increase manufacturing competitiveness on earth?
How did we get here?
In 1990 NASA began planning for the development of a commercial space-launch industry. In 2005 NASA officially implemented the Commercial Orbital Transportation Service program, to bring cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The result was the emergence of many new launch-vehicle companies, including Space X, Blue Origin, RocketLab, Firefly, and more. To a great extent, these companies have been extremely successful in the design, build, and operation of launch vehicles that now send cargo and humans to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on a routine basis.
In 2011, with the successful experience of commercial cargo, NASA began the Commercial Crew Program, in which NASA contracted with Boeing and SpaceX for their privately owned and operated space capsules to dock with the ISS and serve as a primary means of crew transport. Boeing and Space X developed their Dragon and Starliner vehicles, respectively. In 2020, SpaceX ‘Crew-1’ arrived aboard a Dragon capsule at the ISS, with and Starliner delivered a crew of two to the ISS in 2024, but returned successfully to Earth without its crew, due to technical problems.
Following the play-book of Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew, NASA is now implementing a similar strategy for the future of space stations in LEO. In December 2021, NASA announced three winners of major seed-funding administered under milestone-based Space Act Agreements, to develop privately-owned and commercially-operated space stations to replace the ISS, which is scheduled for de-orbit as early as 2030. The three winners were: Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin, and Nanoracks, now part of Voyager Technologies Inc. In 2024, Northrop Grumman ended their efforts to develop a space station independently and joined the Voyager team. Today, Blue Origin continues the development of their ‘Orbital Reef’ concept, while Voyager has established a global joint-venture with partners that include Airbus Defense and Space (Europe), Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan), MDA (Canada), Palantir, The Ohio State University, and Hilton Hotels to build their Starlab concept. In addition to these NASA-seeded commercial space stations, Axiom is currently providing private, commercial missions to the ISS with additional hardware being assembled in Houston and Turin, partnering with Thales Alenia Space. Vast, a start-up space company funded by entrepreneur Jed McCaleb, is building Haven 1 for short-trip human missions to LEO, expected to last no longer than 30 days.
These activities led the Harvard Business Review in 2022 to state, “Your company needs a space strategy.” And McKinsey and Company at the World Economic Forum in 2024 stated, “The global space economy will grow from $630B to $18T by 2035.”
So why are multiple companies and consortia investing in private, commercial space stations?
Space offers a unique environment and a laboratory that cannot be replicated anywhere on Earth at any price, in order to perform cutting-edge scientific research, innovation, and exploration. This enables the exploration of physical and biological processes that cannot be studied on Earth, and can lead to major breakthroughs for Earth and space-related domains alike. We are ever-more dependent on space as a key ingredient in modern civilization and are also pushing human presence ever-deeper into the Solar System. Consequently, if we are to continue to improve the conditions for life on Earth, as well as to live sustainably in LEO and beyond, we must learn to live, eat, sleep, and build in space.
Today, aboard the ISS, we have the first-chapter of ongoing research and development for food, manufacturing, materials science, human health, and more. Continuing these endeavors will require future space stations in which to carry out R&D and, ultimately, manufacture profitable products.
Manufacturing in Low Earth Orbit (and beyond).
It is feasible to consider space manufacturing as a route to new industries. However, anything manufactured in space must be a) small, b) highly valuable, and c) easily returned to Earth undamaged. These constraints mean that products such as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are among the likeliest of candidates. Additionally, other high-end, specialty products such as perfumes, optical fibers, and whiskey have been flown in LEO. A first successful manufactured product on the Space Shuttle back in the mid-1980s was monodisperse latex particles. These particles cannot form during Earth-based emulsion polymerization because of gravity. However, after manufacture in space, they were sold by NIST (then NBS) as a standard for use in microscopy. Since that time, very little has emerged in the area of successful commercial products being developed and manufactured in space.
Another exciting pathway, however, is to use the unique laboratory environment of LEO to understand specific scientific processes that are masked in Earth-based laboratories, enabling products to be manufactured on Earth in new ways that were previously not possible because of the lack of knowledge. In another emulsion experiment in LEO, P&G determined ways to prevent gravity-induced separation of the shampoo into immiscible liquids. A direct result is that your P&G shampoos no longer separate-out on the bathroom shelf, and you don’t need to shake them prior to using.
Keytruda, is a major prescription immunotherapy drug for various forms of cancer, produced (on Earth) by Merck Pharmaceuticals. In its initial form, the drug was unstable, had to be kept at cryogenic temperatures and required the patient to be injected at special sites. An understanding of the detailed protein-folding mechanisms discovered through research in LEO have enabled the drug to be manufactured on Earth in a new way, and into a stable form that can be administered anywhere, thus making the drug more available, substantially improving patient outcomes, enabling Merck to renew its patent, and therefore build a stronger revenue stream from this product.
Other medical products being researched today through LEO include artificial retinas, and studies of osteo-arthritis. Plant research in LEO continues to yield valuable results not only for feeding people in space, but for how to improve key Earth-based challenges such as crop security and resilience. Space-based semiconductor growth research dates back to flights aboard the US Space Station Skylab in 1973, and multiple experiments have been carried out since then aboard both the Space Shuttle and ISS. These efforts aim to understand how to overcome substantial barriers to quick, high-quality, and high-yield semiconductor production that is introduced by gravitational forces on Earth.
Beyond the scientific research benefits of microgravity, there are substantial practical benefits to incorporating LEO-based manufacturing into the supply chain. And while there have been many experiments over many years, we have yet to achieve sufficient quality of product or the scale of manufacturing required to generate a positive business case.
Energy harvesting, storage, and distribution is also a strong potential future economic opportunity in LEO. In the first demonstration of its kind, CalTech demonstrated wireless transmission of power detected on earth. Today, US companies such as StarCatcher, Aetherflux, and Virtus Solis all seek to exploit the opportunity for power from space. China also plans to develop space-based solar power in 2028. The first to successfully generate, transmit, detect and feed power to customers, and do so within a profitable business model, will open the door to a fully sustainable, low-carbon economy.
Additive manufacturing through 3D-printing was first demonstrated in LEO aboard the ISS in 2014, by MadeInSpace, a start-up company that has since been acquired by RedWire. More recently, welding of materials in zero G has received significant attention as another means of potential manufacturing. Laser welding in vacuum and zero-G has been demonstrated for the first time aboard parabolic flights, further proving the viability of this technique. Commercial companies are emerging globally to pursue the development of materials joining and manufacturing. However, we are still quite a distance from the ability to manufacture large-scale structures for use in solar arrays, instrumentation platforms, or other applications.
A comprehensive timeline of in-space manufacturing is available here.
From the preceding examples we can see that commercial investment in space can enhance manufacturing competitiveness on Earth in several ways:
Creation of New Materials: In-space manufacturing can enable the development of materials that are not readily available, or are difficult to produce on Earth. These materials can create new advanced manufacturing industries or revolutionize existing industries.
Innovation: Investment in space-based research has already driven innovation in robotics, automation, biopharmaceuticals, medical products, and materials, which can improve manufacturing processes, improve efficiency, and product quality on Earth.
New research partnerships: The broad range of medical, scientific, engineering, agriculture, and other experiments in the commercial space market will open new competitive and collaborative partnerships
New Markets and Business Models: Investment in space can create new markets, such as satellite servicing, asteroid mining, space debris recovery or remediation, and space tourism, all of which would further drive economic growth. This diversification can help manufacturing companies find new revenue streams and business models.
Sustainability Initiatives: Space is a highly constrained environment in which to live and work, leading to a strong need for sustainable operations. In-space manufacturing will result in more efficient processes, reduced use of materials and sustainable energy consumption. Such practices can lead to economic advantages back on Earth.
Training and Workforce Development: Space has once again become ‘cool’ (if it ever wasn’t!) and students from K-PhD are engaged, excited, and see valuable, long-term career opportunities. Such a skilled workforce will benefit every single traditional manufacturing industry.
In summary the growth of commercial investments in space will create new materials, enhance economic growth, build a new technology workforce, and benefit the competitiveness of manufacturing industries. Few other aspects of the US economy offer such a broad set of advantages.
I would like to thank Dr. John Horack, Neil Armstrong Chair of Aerospace Policy at Ohio State, for supporting this article.
About the Author:
David B. Williams was Dean of the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University (OSU) from 2011-2021 where he led 1000 faculty and staff. He was responsible for the education of almost 10,000 students and managed a $310M annual budget, including $150M of research expenditures. The College has over 66,000 alumni who, in partnership with multiple industries, contributed over $600M in external development funds to the College during the past decade. During that same time over 200 professors were hired and over $300M in new facilities were constructed across the College.
Williams represented OSU on the US Business Higher Education Forum and the US Council on Competitiveness, where he holds the position of Senior Fellow. He also served for a decade on the board of One Columbus, responsible for central Ohio’s economic development and regional growth strategy. As dean, he was chair of the boards of the Transportation Research Center and the Metro Early-College STEM School, served on the board of Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation), the Ohio Aerospace Institute, the Ohio Aerospace and Aviation Council, the advisory board of the Ohio Third Frontier and the executive review board of the Ohio Federal Research Network.
Williams was President of the University of Alabama in Huntsville from 2007 to 2011. There he led the university into the Carnegie Tier 1 research classification as the smallest public university in that classification. He served on the boards of the Tennessee Valley Corridor, The US Space and Rocket Center, the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce and the Alabama Business Council. Before UAHuntsville, Williams was VP Research at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA where he was on the Boards of the NE PA Ben Franklin Technology Partnership and the Central PA Life Sciences Greenhouse, responsible for investing state funds in early-stage technology and life-science companies. He created the Commonwealth’s Research Advisory Council to advise Governor Tom Ridge and the Department of Community and Economic Development on state research investments.
Williams holds B.A., M.A., Ph.D., and Sc.D. degrees from The University of Cambridge. He is a (co-) author and editor of 13 textbooks and conference proceedings and (co-) author of 450 publications on electron microscopy studies of metals and alloys. He has given 330 invited talks in 30 countries and is a Fellow of 10 inter/national professional societies in materials, microscopy, aerospace and economic development.
