From Lab to In-Space Manufacturing

Have you ever stopped to think about how your phone knows where you are, how the time on your screen stays precise, or how financial transactions move securely around the world? Much of this quiet reliability is enabled by space technology: satellites orbiting hundreds to thousands of kilometres above Earth, helping us navigate, communicate, monitor the planet and synchronise the systems we depend on.

As technology evolves, we are beginning to look differently at what the space environment, specifically microgravity, can do for us here on Earth. In 2024, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), institutional space budgets reached €122bn and private investment reached €7bn, pointing to growing confidence in space not only as exploration and infrastructure, but as an environment for research, manufacturing and value creation.

Why do spacecraft experience microgravity and why is it important?

Objects in space move at very high speed while still experiencing Earth’s gravitational pull, placing them in continuous free-fall. This creates the condition known as microgravity.

Microgravity changes how materials, fluids and biological systems behave. With buoyancy, sedimentation and convection greatly reduced, forces such as surface tension, diffusion and electrostatic interactions become more important. This allows researchers to observe and control processes in ways that are difficult on Earth: crystals may grow more uniformly, fluids behave differently, and cells or particles can remain suspended for longer without settling.

These differences matter because they reveal material behaviours that are otherwise masked by gravity and may support higher-value manufacturing. In materials science, microgravity can enable more uniform crystal growth, fewer defects and improved homogeneity. In life sciences and biopharma, it can support work on proteins, pharmaceutical compounds, organoids, tissue models and disease research by changing how biological systems organise and develop in three dimensions.

The same capability matters for future exploration. We cannot launch every spare part, tool, medical supply or life-supporting system from Earth indefinitely. To explore deeper into space sustainably, we will need to make what we need in space, for space.

From research to real-world applications

Microgravity is therefore not just a scientific curiosity, but a distinct experimental and manufacturing environment with potential to turn orbital research into repeatable processes, useful products and commercial opportunities. The next challenge is translation: identifying where microgravity offers a meaningful advantage over Earth-based approaches, improving access to platforms, and creating the regulatory, commercial and technical conditions needed for adoption.

In the UK, the focus is now shifting towards how microgravity research can be translated into practical, commercially relevant applications. Innovate UK Business Connect is pleased to be working with partners including the Satellite Applications Catapult, through their UK-Beyond Earth Network as part of their Beyond Earth Mission, to help connect activity across life sciences, advanced materials, in-space manufacturing and enabling technologies as part of a quarterly series of webinars.
The Satellite Applications Catapult’s biopharma white paper frames microgravity as a strategic but under-exploited UK opportunity, while highlighting current barriers such as unquantified return on investment, limited access to orbital infrastructure, regulatory uncertainty, skills gaps and lack of standardised procedures.

A practical agenda is now emerging for challenge-led demonstration missions, clearer return on investment (ROI) frameworks, shared standards, interdisciplinary skills programmes and better mapping of UK capabilities. The aim is to move beyond one-off experiments towards automated, repeatable and quality-controlled platforms connected to terrestrial research and development (R&D) and manufacturing workflows.

Microgravity is more than a scientific curiosity – it is a powerful tool for innovation. From advanced materials and pharmaceuticals to autonomous systems and in-space manufacturing, the ability to operate in a microgravity environment is opening new pathways for technological advancement. The Beyond Earth Mission within the Satellite Applications Catapult is focused on helping UK organisations understand, access and exploit these opportunities, ensuring that the benefits of space-based innovation translate into economic growth and competitive advantage here on Earth.

Nasreen Dhanji, Beyond Earth Mission Lead, Satellite Applications Catapult

A cross-sector opportunity

For Innovate UK Business Connect, the opportunity is to help bring together sectors that do not always speak the same language, working alongside partners such as the Satellite Applications Catapult and the wider Beyond Earth community.

Much of today’s microgravity research remains exploratory: experiments are flown to space and carried out in the microgravity environment, with analysis often taking place back on Earth. Thus, to unlock manufacturing potential, the field will need stronger links between life sciences, advanced materials, robotics, automation, regulation, platform technologies and space systems. For organisations outside the space sector, the opportunity is not simply to “go to space”, but to understand how they could contribute to, or benefit from, this growing ecosystem.

For Innovate UK Business Connect, this means supporting life sciences, manufacturing, and space communities to identify where microgravity could create value, and what capabilities are needed to make in-space R&D and manufacturing repeatable, scalable and commercially viable.

Join the conversation and get involved

On 16 July, between 11:30am and 1:00pm, please join Maria, Elaine and other members from the Innovate UK Business Connect team as they continue the conversation during the first webinar in a new series of online discussions in partnership with Satellite Applications Catapult and partners.

You may also want to explore relevant opportunities in space such as the Horizon Europe Digital, Industry and Space Global Challenge.