We are building OrbiSky to make orbital industrial missions a repeatable service. Our ambition is to design, build, own and operate those missions, helping customers develop processes that benefit from conditions beyond Earth.
The starting point is a customer with a problem worth solving. A manufacturer may need an optical material with better performance. A research team may need to understand how a process behaves under different conditions. Their first requirement could be a focused experiment, with further work following as the results establish what is useful.
That progression is central to our thinking. It connects experimental work to a longer-term business in mission operations and industrial production. It also gives Britain an opportunity to build companies that serve international customers through engineering and scientific capabilities developed here.
SkyYield is our first manufacturing programme. It builds on UK Space Agency-commissioned feasibility work examining a payload for processing ZBLAN fluoride glass in microgravity. It provides a specific application around which to develop the wider capabilities OrbiSky intends to operate.
The industrial opportunity
Gravity affects how fluids circulate, particles settle and materials form. In microgravity, those processes can behave differently, allowing researchers to investigate conditions that terrestrial equipment can reproduce only for limited periods or approximate in particular ways. ESA's Commercial Applications Enabled by Space Environments initiative reflects the commercial interest in using these conditions across different industries.
Specialist optical glass is one example. ZBLAN is of interest for infrared optical fibres, but crystallisation during processing can impair optical performance. Research into its processing behaviour shows why the conditions under which it is heated and handled matter. Investigating microgravity is one route towards understanding and potentially improving the process.
The wider field includes semiconductor materials and pharmaceutical manufacturing. In February 2026, the UK Space Agency announced feasibility studies involving Space Forge, BioOrbit and OrbiSky across these applications.
Each application has its own route to a useful product. An improved material property must ultimately translate into something a customer can measure, qualify and use. That relationship between the experiment and the customer's application determines which opportunities deserve further development.
Start with a useful experiment
A customer should be able to begin with a clearly defined investigation. For an optical material, that might mean identifying which processing conditions affect a property that limits its use. Ground experiments and modelling can help establish a baseline, narrow the question and determine what a microgravity experiment would add.
This is the approach we intend to develop at OrbiSky. The customer should gain useful evidence at each stage, with the next stage shaped by what has been learned. Some investigations may produce valuable answers entirely on Earth. Others may justify a focused experiment in orbit and, eventually, a mission capable of producing material to an agreed specification.
The first flight experiment should be sized around the question it must answer. A compact hosted payload may be sufficient for one investigation. A more demanding process may require a dedicated mission. The choice should follow the experiment's requirements and the value of the result.
This approach gives customers a practical way to participate before committing to a production programme. It also lets OrbiSky develop its engineering against specific requirements, with increasing investment supported by stronger evidence of technical and commercial value.
Build for repeat customers
The services a customer buys will change as an application develops. An initial contract could cover experimental design and evaluation. Later work could include payload integration, an orbital experiment and the delivery of its results. A qualified process could support repeat manufacturing runs.
The required deliverable matters. Some customers need research data to make a development decision. Others need physical samples or finished material that can enter their own testing and production processes. Those requirements determine the equipment, measurements and logistics a mission must provide.
For a product used on Earth, the commercial assessment must include the complete route to delivery, including launch, operations, return where required, and subsequent processing and qualification. The relevant comparison is the best practical alternative available to the customer. A performance improvement becomes commercially useful when its value supports that complete delivery cost.
Public programmes can help establish early capability and demonstrate an unfamiliar process. A durable business also needs customers who commission further work because the results are useful to them. Our objective is to develop services around that continuing need.
Repeat business would allow investment in equipment, procedures and supplier relationships to support successive missions. It would also create a reason to improve reliability and turnaround time. These are the foundations on which we believe orbital manufacturing companies can grow.
A common foundation for different missions
Industrial processes require specialised equipment. A furnace for optical glass and a system for biological production have different containment, instrumentation and operating requirements. Each application needs engineering suited to its science.
There is also substantial work that can carry across programmes. Payloads need power and communications interfaces, controlled procedures, supervision and records that make the results interpretable. Developing these capabilities as a common foundation can reduce the amount of work that must be repeated for each mission.
OrbiSky's development connects preliminary payload engineering with software for operating experiments and preserving their records. We are building towards missions in which an autonomous payload can execute an agreed process, respond within defined limits and allow operators to understand what happened during a run.
The operational record is part of the service. A customer needs to relate an outcome to the process that produced it, including the configuration used and any interruptions or deviations. That information supports comparison between experiments and decisions about what to change next.
Our ambition to own and operate industrial missions follows from this. Responsibility for successive runs gives us a direct reason to improve the whole service, from experiment preparation to delivery of results. Experience can accumulate across missions while customers retain access to the specialist capabilities their applications require.
Britain can build and operate this industry
Britain has relevant strengths in optical research, scientific instrumentation and spacecraft engineering, alongside manufacturers able to supply specialised components. Bringing these capabilities into repeat industrial missions could create work across the country and services that can be sold internationally.
The UK Space Strategy published in September 2026 identifies in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing among four subsectors prioritised for faster development. It sets an ambition for a mature in-orbit manufacturing capability by 2035, supported by an ecosystem and testing environment.
OrbiSky's ambition is to build its design, integration and operational capability in the UK. We see universities and specialist engineering companies as essential participants, contributing the research, measurement expertise and hardware needed to turn a process into an operable payload.
Shared facilities and access to flight opportunities can help such collaborations progress. A manufacturer should be able to investigate a space-enabled application through a clear relationship with an organisation responsible for assembling and delivering the work. That makes participation more practical for businesses without their own space engineering teams.
International partnerships remain important. British companies can lead missions while working with overseas providers of hosting, transport or specialised technology. Developing capability in the UK and participating in global supply chains can support the same commercial objective: serving customers reliably and retaining the expertise needed to improve the service.
From SkyYield to a wider industrial capability
SkyYield gives OrbiSky a concrete starting point in specialist optical glass. Our current development combines payload concepts and operational software, with physical qualification and an orbital demonstration ahead. The next stages must connect that work to measurements and outcomes that matter to prospective customers.
The broader ambition is to develop industrial missions across successive applications. Where interfaces and operational methods can be reused, experience from one programme should help the next. Where the science requires different equipment, we intend to work with the specialists who can provide it.
Britain has an opportunity to participate in this industry as a country that develops and operates complete industrial services. The companies that build those services will need to earn repeat business through useful results and dependable delivery.
That is the company we intend OrbiSky to become. We are starting with a defined application and building the capability to take customers from an initial experiment towards production in orbit.