{"id":2569,"date":"2025-10-27T09:52:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/space-forge-tests-origami-heat-shield-in-zero-gravity-flight\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T09:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:52:05","slug":"space-forge-tests-origami-heat-shield-in-zero-gravity-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/space-forge-tests-origami-heat-shield-in-zero-gravity-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Forge Tests Origami Heat Shield in Zero Gravity Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Space<\/p>\n

Space Forge<\/strong>, the advanced materials company revolutionising semiconductor manufacturing in space, has successfully trialled the deployment of its novel origami-based heat shield, Pridwen, on a zero gravity flight. The flight was facilitated by ZeroG, the world leader in zero gravity flights, headquartered in Exploration Park, Florida, with members of the Space Forge team entering microgravity to test the heat shield\u2019s deployment capabilities, marking a critical step towards enabling scalable, repeatable manufacturing in orbit.<\/p>\n

Named after the legendary shield of King Arthur, Pridwen is designed to ensure safe atmospheric re-entry and satellite recovery. Its high temperature material combats heat flux through radiation – as opposed to the ablation technique employed by standard heat shields – while its shuttlecock-style shield serves as a parachute to enable a safe landing for descending satellites.<\/p>\n

Through multiple experiments across two days, Space Forge was able to gather data on both nominal (full) and off-nominal (partial) deployments, which will be analysed and learnings applied to the deployment of the shield on Forgestar-1, which is currently in orbit following the successful launch aboard SpaceX\u2019s Transporter-14 rideshare mission in June.<\/p>\n

ForgeStar-1, Space Forge\u2019s first in-orbit manufacturing satellite, is designed to demonstrate the viability of producing advanced materials in the unique conditions of space. The mission will test manufacturing techniques for next-generation semiconductors while also trialling key return-enabling technologies, including the Pridwen heat shield. By validating both production and re-entry systems, ForgeStar-1 will lay the groundwork for future missions that can forge new materials in orbit and safely bring them back to Earth.<\/p>\n

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Also Read: What are the the Different Types of Launch Vehicles used in Space?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

Joining the team aboard the flight was Teacher Dustin Bennett, as part of the ISS & NASA-backed ‘Space for Teachers’ programme, which provides teachers and students with authentic, immersive microgravity research opportunities. Bennett\u2019s students designed disposable capture discs based on some of the themes used for the Pridwen shield, which were also trialled as part of the exercise. <\/p>\n

Neil Monteiro<\/strong><\/em>, Microgravity Research Manager, Space Forge: <\/strong>“Deploying Pridwen in microgravity with ZeroG is a key step in the maturation process. It proves our shield works in the closest environment to space we can reach on Earth, and takes us one step closer to recovering satellites safely and enabling a new era of manufacturing in orbit.”<\/em><\/p>\n

This milestone brings Space Forge closer to demonstrating Pridwen\u2019s first full deployment in orbit – a crucial step toward making space manufacturing scalable, sustainable, and repeatable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space Forge, the advanced materials company revolutionising semiconductor manufacturing in space, has successfully trialled the deployment of its novel origami-based heat shield, Pridwen, on a zero gravity flight. The flight was facilitated by ZeroG, the world leader in zero gravity flights, headquartered in Exploration Park, Florida, with members of the Space Forge team entering microgravity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,25,20],"class_list":["post-2569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ground","tag-launch","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}