/sci/ - Science & Math

New startup dropped

https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/15/in-orbit-aerospace-wants-to-unlock-mass-manufacturing-in-space-but-they-wont-be-doing-the-manufacturing/amp/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADaSZmrp0eIVFphL7pWO11caz3s5VJTbFZkIwuNHK3hLVhq1ZGpraIdfyl1k0K_ZJSNNtYzTS3oldoZSRxsrBf0JtSUuIbzXS-10HZ2ZxO2UHqFq-8qdrnL-_HmXa5-e9d9ot20c5sXEMJtUu8M4dd-7hXpVwsoimOCJHm_vCIQd

> Two-year-old space startup In Orbit Aerospace wants to be the third-party logistics provider for Earth to space commerce — and to get there, the company just closed a new agreement to validate key technical capabilities on the International Space Station.

>The El Segundo, California-based company is developing orbital platforms and re-entry vehicles to enable mass manufacturing and research in space. In Orbit’s plans are more than a little ambitious: The idea is to host customers’ factories or labs on an orbital platform. Uncrewed reentry vehicles would autonomously dock and rendezvous with the platforms, and a robotic system would transfer the manufactured material to that vehicle, which would then bring the products back to Earth.

>“Automation and robotics is the backbone of industrial manufacturing on Earth,” CEO Ryan Elliott said in a statement. “It should be no different in space.”