National Microgravity Research Centre completed

Photo courtesy of CISM and Swansea University

Space Forge has announced the completion of the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), fulfilling the objectives of the Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) project awarded in November 2023. The completion marks the final milestone in a £13 million programme part-funded by the UK Space Agency.

The NMRC is located at the Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM) at Swansea University, where Space Forge has become the centre's first incubation client. Operating from a dedicated clean room incubation bay, the company now has access to a full suite of semiconductor processing and characterisation tools, as well as CISM’s wider community of semiconductor researchers, companies and innovators.

The facility forms the terrestrial anchor of Space Forge's hybrid manufacturing model, in which semiconductor seed wafers grown in the microgravity of low-Earth orbit are returned to Earth and scaled at CISM.

The completion of the NMRC follows a series of significant technical achievements for Space Forge. The company launched ForgeStar-1 – the first British-built in-space manufacturing satellite in history – aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-14 in June 2025. By December 2025, ForgeStar-1 had successfully generated plasma in orbit, demonstrating that the extreme conditions required for gas-phase crystal growth can be created and controlled aboard a commercial spacecraft (see the story here. The satellite’s mission data is directly informing the design of future missions and the development of microgravity growth tools at CISM.

Terrestrial scale-up capability
At CISM, Space Forge is developing its terrestrial scale-up capability with a focus on radiation-hard wide band-gap power electronics materials, including silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium oxide (Ga2O3). These materials benefit significantly from the absence of convection, ultra-high vacuum and stable thermal conditions found in microgravity. The global semiconductor industry is forecast to reach $1 trillion in annual revenues by 2030.

Joshua Western, CEO and co-Founder of Space Forge, said: “When we secured this funding in 2023 we set out to build something that would advance microgravity materials and open doors for other space companies to do the same. Being based at CISM gives us access to world-class semiconductor infrastructure and a community of researchers and talent that will help us move faster.”

Dr Paul Bate, CEO of the UK Space Agency, added: “The completion of the National Microgravity Research Centre is another concrete example of what our Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund is designed to achieve – tangible, lasting infrastructure that strengthens the UK’s space economy and builds sovereign capability in strategically important technologies. Space Forge has demonstrated real ambition, from launching the first British-built in-space manufacturing satellite to now establishing a world-class terrestrial facility at Swansea University. This investment is helping to cement Wales and the wider UK as a serious player in the future of semiconductor manufacturing.”

CISM is part of the CSconnected compound semiconductor ecosystem in South Wales, Europe's first cluster for compound semiconductor manufacturing and innovation, built with £55 million of UK and Welsh Government investment. Space Forge's presence at the facility strengthens Wales' position within the UK's sovereign semiconductor supply chain.