Startup semi-conductor manufacturer Besxar signs deal to use SpaceX’s Falcon 9 first stage as production platform during its short flight
In what appears to be first, the startup Besxar has signed a deal with SpaceX to fly what it calls its Fabships on the first stage of the Falcon 9 in order to take advantage of the extreme vacuum of space to produce better semi-conductors.
Fabships will be integrated on Falcon 9 first stage boosters and retrieved post launch after the rocket safely returns to land. The campaign marks the first-ever reusable payload program to launch on a SpaceX rocket and will accelerate Besxar’s path toward building the world’s first orbital semiconductor foundry. This flight campaign will debut Besxar’s “Clipper-class” Fabship, engineered for short-duration, quick-turnaround sorties that enable rapid iteration and demonstrate the first phase in Besxar’s broader vision to establish scalable semiconductor production in orbit.
Besxar is pioneering a new class of orbital manufacturing, using the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) of space to produce ultra-pure substrates and precursor materials—the foundational building blocks for AI data centers, quantum computing, nuclear systems, next-generation defense systems, and directed-energy applications. By manufacturing in orbit, Besxar can achieve purity levels and yield efficiencies impossible on Earth, effectively doubling the chip cost-efficiency for next-generation AI workloads.
The deal is for twelve flights, with the first occurring as soon as this year. The deal not only allows Besxar an opportunity to produce a better product it can sell, it gives SpaceX another avenue for profits. It is in fact surprising that SpaceX has not done more deals like this, especially with its Dragon cargo capsule. There is a whole cottage industry now developing using returnable capsules for in-space manufacturing — led by Varda. That SpaceX hasn’t offered Dragon as yet is puzzling. It is possible Dragon is simply too expensive and large at this time, based on the nascent state of this industry. Once investors see profits from the smaller new capsules like Varda’s they will look at Dragon as an option.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In what appears to be first, the startup Besxar has signed a deal with SpaceX to fly what it calls its Fabships on the first stage of the Falcon 9 in order to take advantage of the extreme vacuum of space to produce better semi-conductors.
Fabships will be integrated on Falcon 9 first stage boosters and retrieved post launch after the rocket safely returns to land. The campaign marks the first-ever reusable payload program to launch on a SpaceX rocket and will accelerate Besxar’s path toward building the world’s first orbital semiconductor foundry. This flight campaign will debut Besxar’s “Clipper-class” Fabship, engineered for short-duration, quick-turnaround sorties that enable rapid iteration and demonstrate the first phase in Besxar’s broader vision to establish scalable semiconductor production in orbit.
Besxar is pioneering a new class of orbital manufacturing, using the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) of space to produce ultra-pure substrates and precursor materials—the foundational building blocks for AI data centers, quantum computing, nuclear systems, next-generation defense systems, and directed-energy applications. By manufacturing in orbit, Besxar can achieve purity levels and yield efficiencies impossible on Earth, effectively doubling the chip cost-efficiency for next-generation AI workloads.
The deal is for twelve flights, with the first occurring as soon as this year. The deal not only allows Besxar an opportunity to produce a better product it can sell, it gives SpaceX another avenue for profits. It is in fact surprising that SpaceX has not done more deals like this, especially with its Dragon cargo capsule. There is a whole cottage industry now developing using returnable capsules for in-space manufacturing — led by Varda. That SpaceX hasn’t offered Dragon as yet is puzzling. It is possible Dragon is simply too expensive and large at this time, based on the nascent state of this industry. Once investors see profits from the smaller new capsules like Varda’s they will look at Dragon as an option.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I’m kind of curious, you only mention the first stage, so is the Besxar capsule inclusive of engines to bring it into orbit and back?
Bill Buhler: My understanding is that the Fabship is simply carried on the first stage, which not only takes it up but brings it back. It appears the company thinks it will have enough time on this flight to take advantage of the more pure vacuum experienced to manufacture better semi-conductor components.
That is my understanding.
If a Falcoln 9 first stage is just going to go straight up, for a sub orbital flight, then it might reach 80 miles at apogee, and provide several minutes of zero G and high vacuum. No need for that pesky downrange motion for orbital boosting.
The idea seems to be to attach the production module to the F9 1st stage in some fashion, then take advantage of the 3 or so minutes of suitably hard vacuum exposure available between roughly fairing separation and entry burn start-up.
I will be interested to see just where Besxar’s Fabship modules are mounted on the F9 booster. The company website has nothing to say about this matter.
My best guess would be attachment(s) at some point just above one or more of the landing legs or perhaps as high as midway up the side of the booster. It would seem to be best, from the standpoint of mass and aerodynamic balance, to mount these things in pairs or in greater multiples of two placed with radial symmetry around the booster’s diameter. Mounting down low risks spoilage of the ambient vacuum by residual propellant outgassing from the engines. Mounting up high, near the grid fins, say, also risks spoilage of ambient vacuum by the cold gas thrusters used for attitude control prior to atmospheric entry.
Prior to this, I have seen suggestions that suborbital crew capsules could replace the aeroshells atop Falcon Heavy side boosters to provide a brief thrill ride comparable or better than that available on Blue’s New Shepard. There are, needless to say, some decided challenges to implementing such a notion.
This Besxar thingy is definitely a clever idea without any human-occupancy baggage attached. I hope it works.
”It is in fact surprising that SpaceX has not done more deals like this, especially with its Dragon cargo capsule.”
For years SpaceX carried in its catalog a type of unmanned Dragon called DragonLab for just these types of experiments. It was never able to drum up enough interest to pay for a flight and dropped the idea when they transitioned cargo flights to the Dragon 2.
”I will be interested to see just where Besxar’s Fabship modules are mounted on the F9 booster.”
I suspect it will be in the interstage. There should be room to mount equipment on the inside wall down near the nozzle.
OK, thanks for the clarification, I was somehow perceiving this as SpaceX launching just stage one paired with Besxar’s module on top.
It’s really wild to think you can do useful vacuum manufacturing work in just a few minutes in space.
Elon Musk on quantum computing
https://x.com/XFreeze/status/1985021854604501002
A.I. and math
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-qa-mathematics-reveal-depth-deep.html