SpaceX planning to use Starship for manufacturing in space
It appears the enthusiastic investment response last week to the potential of using Varda’s re-turnable capsule for manufacturing in space (especially of pharmceuticals) has caught SpaceX’s interest. According to a news report yesterday, SpaceX has now begun developing a program to use Starship for the same purpose, delivering the raw materials in orbit for short or long periods while these products are produced automatically and then returning them for sale on Earth.
Under the plan, internally called Starfall, SpaceX’s Starship rocket would bring products such as pharmaceutical components to space in small, uncrewed capsules, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential.
Starship would then deploy the capsules, which would spend time in orbit before reentering the atmosphere, where they could be recovered back on Earth, the person added.
This description by this anonymous source seems inaccurate however. Why even consider using these small separate capsules when the entire operation can be put inside Starship, which can then bring everything home when ready? Moreover, Starship’s ability to put a lot of mass in a large space up into orbit gives it an great advantage over the smaller capsules being developed by companies like Varda.
Either way, the advantages of weightlessness for producing products for profit are finally being realized, after decades of blockage by government intransigence. Since the Challenger accident in 1986 and Reagan’s order that the shuttle would no longer not be used for commercial purposes, NASA has forbidden production on its spacecraft and ISS of any products for sale afterward.
Now that the cost of launch has dropped significantly (Thank you Elon Musk!), many investors and companies are seeing great potential for manufacturing in space. And those profits will help feed a private space industry, making the government agency of NASA even more irrelevant.
It appears the enthusiastic investment response last week to the potential of using Varda’s re-turnable capsule for manufacturing in space (especially of pharmceuticals) has caught SpaceX’s interest. According to a news report yesterday, SpaceX has now begun developing a program to use Starship for the same purpose, delivering the raw materials in orbit for short or long periods while these products are produced automatically and then returning them for sale on Earth.
Under the plan, internally called Starfall, SpaceX’s Starship rocket would bring products such as pharmaceutical components to space in small, uncrewed capsules, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential.
Starship would then deploy the capsules, which would spend time in orbit before reentering the atmosphere, where they could be recovered back on Earth, the person added.
This description by this anonymous source seems inaccurate however. Why even consider using these small separate capsules when the entire operation can be put inside Starship, which can then bring everything home when ready? Moreover, Starship’s ability to put a lot of mass in a large space up into orbit gives it an great advantage over the smaller capsules being developed by companies like Varda.
Either way, the advantages of weightlessness for producing products for profit are finally being realized, after decades of blockage by government intransigence. Since the Challenger accident in 1986 and Reagan’s order that the shuttle would no longer not be used for commercial purposes, NASA has forbidden production on its spacecraft and ISS of any products for sale afterward.
Now that the cost of launch has dropped significantly (Thank you Elon Musk!), many investors and companies are seeing great potential for manufacturing in space. And those profits will help feed a private space industry, making the government agency of NASA even more irrelevant.