Space Forge

Recognized under Tier 3 — Structural Habitats, Space Forge is a Wales-based company developing reusable, uncrewed orbital manufacturing platforms rather than crewed habitats, using microgravity and vacuum conditions to process materials such as semiconductors. Its first satellite, ForgeStar-1, launched in June 2025 aboard a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission and, in late 2025 and early 2026, successfully ignited its onboard furnace, reaching roughly 1,000 degrees Celsius and generating plasma in orbit — a milestone the company describes as the first activation of a commercial in-space manufacturing furnace. A successor spacecraft, ForgeStar-2, is planned to produce the company's first space-made semiconductor batches and return them to Earth using reusable reentry technology. Space Forge's uncrewed, reentry-capable manufacturing platform is a proving ground for the kind of automated, structurally robust production hardware that a Mars settlement would need to fabricate components locally rather than ship them from Earth.