Astral Materials to use Aurora spaceplane for microgravity manufacturing tests

Astral Materials has chosen Dawn Aerospace's Aurora spaceplane as a testbed for its microgravity furnace, which the company is developing for materials and semiconductor manufacturing. An initial campaign will cover up to 100 Aurora flights over two years, operated from the Infinity One Spaceport site in Oklahoma. The spaceplane's four-hour turnaround means Astral Materials can test and refine hardware several times in a single day.

The missions will run from Dawn Aerospace's US commercial operations facilities, where the company is building up high-cadence microgravity research services. Astral Materials plans to use the suborbital flights to mature its furnace technologies before moving on to long-duration orbital missions. The company expects this approach to cut development cycles for its manufacturing processes from years to weeks.

Astral Materials' chief technology officer, Jiya Janowitz, said the rapid iteration the spaceplane enables "fundamentally changes how quickly we can develop our technology."