SpaceX launched its first Twilight rideshare mission early Sunday morning, sending 40 small payloads into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Whereas the launch included missions for NASA and a number of other industrial satellite tv for pc operators, one payload stood out for the additive manufacturing trade: a 3D printing experiment designed to fabricate a construction instantly in house.
The rocket lifted off at 5:44 a.m. native time from Vandenberg House Drive Base in California. Twilight is a brand new sequence of devoted small satellite tv for pc rideshare missions, and this was its very first flight.
After stage separation, the Falcon 9 booster efficiently returned to land at Vandenberg, whereas the payloads have been deployed right into a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit, an orbit that enables satellites to go over the identical a part of Earth on the similar native time every day.
Falcon 9 is vertical at pad 4E in California forward of the Twilight rideshare mission to dusk-dawn orbit. Picture courtesy of SpaceX.
A 3D printing mission in free house
Among the many 40 payloads was a mission from Dcubed, an organization centered on deployable house constructions and in-space manufacturing. Dcubed’s mission, referred to as ARAQYS-D1, is designed to 3D print and manufacture a 60-centimeter increase instantly in orbit.
Following the launch, Dcubed confirmed that its Dcubed-1 ARAQYS-D1 mission had efficiently lifted off aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Twilight flight. The corporate stated satellite tv for pc deployment was anticipated inside hours, after which the mission would enter a commissioning section. As soon as commissioning is full, Dcubed plans to start on-orbit manufacturing of the increase, marking its first in-space manufacturing demonstration.
The purpose is to show that constructions may be constructed after launch, moderately than being absolutely manufactured and folded inside a rocket on Earth. If profitable, this method might assist scale back launch mass, decrease prices, and allow a lot bigger constructions in house than are sensible in the present day.
This experiment is a part of a broader push towards in-space manufacturing, the place parts are made or assembled as soon as they’re already in orbit. For 3D printing, this is likely one of the clearest examples of the expertise shifting past Earth-based manufacturing and into actual operational testing in house.
In actual fact, this mission follows Dcubed’s earlier announcement of its ARAQYS in-space manufacturing platform, which the corporate unveiled in late 2025. As beforehand outlined, ARAQYS-D1 is the primary of a number of deliberate pathfinder missions designed to validate the core manufacturing steps wanted to construct bigger constructions in orbit. Future missions are anticipated to scale the method towards in-space-manufactured photo voltaic arrays able to delivering kilowatts of energy.
NASA and different payloads on board
The Twilight mission additionally carried NASA’s Pandora small satellite tv for pc, which can examine exoplanets and their host stars. As well as, two CubeSat missions supported by NASA (SPARCS and BlackCat) have been included on the flight, together with industrial satellites centered on Earth remark and Web-of-Issues connectivity.
Greater than half of the payloads on the mission have been supported by Exolaunch, which makes a speciality of serving to small satellite tv for pc missions attain orbit by means of rideshare launches.
Rendering of the ExoLaunch. Picture courtesy of Exolaunch.
3D printing has already been examined in house earlier than, each on the Worldwide House Station and thru earlier in-orbit experiments. However missions like this present that it’s turning into extra widespread. Simpler entry to rideshare launches helps flip these experiments into common assessments moderately than remoted demonstrations.
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