Orbital Matter 3D printed the first rigid beam in the vacuum of space

Automated excerpt

A satellite built by the German startup Orbital Matter satellite 3D printed a half-meter long beam out of a custom plastic material, in what executives called a first for a free-flying spacecraft in orbit, and a step toward constructing large structures in space. The company’s small satellite, Replicator-2, was launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission this summer, with four of the company’s 3D printers onboard. Today’s large structures in space are origami projects—large solar arrays or telescope mirrors are folded up and then deployed on orbit.

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