#108 - Josh Western - Space Forge - Growing materials in space

#108 - Josh Western - Space Forge - Growing materials in space

Author: Hugo Rauch October 1, 2026 Duration: 38:53

Subscribe to the newsletter:

New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack

****

🌊 Manufacturing in Space

Why the next generation of advanced materials might be made 500 km above Earth.

We’re joined by Josh Western, co-founder and CEO of Space Forge, a UK company building spacecraft to manufacture advanced materials in space — and bring them back to Earth.

The idea sounds almost absurd at first.

Why launch something into orbit just to manufacture a few grams of material?

Because space gives manufacturers something Earth can’t: microgravity, ultra-high vacuum, and extreme temperatures. For certain advanced materials, especially compound semiconductors, those conditions could produce dramatically higher-quality crystals.

And Space Forge doesn’t need to manufacture an entire chip in orbit.

The company wants to produce the seed crystal in space, return it to Earth, then use conventional semiconductor infrastructure to scale it. Josh says one seed crystal could ultimately support the production of more than one million chips on Earth.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why Earth is actually a difficult place to manufacture ultra-pure materials

→ How a few grams produced in space could enable millions of semiconductor chips

→ Why Space Forge built both its own semiconductor reactor and reusable spacecraft

→ Whether launch costs actually break the economics of in-space manufacturing

→ Why regulation and customs may be a bigger bottleneck than technology

→ How better semiconductors could reduce energy consumption

→ Why Space Forge sees space manufacturing as part of Europe’s reindustrialisation

→ What could come after semiconductors: solar cells, metals, graphene and batteries

Perhaps the most interesting idea is that space doesn’t need to replace terrestrial manufacturing. It could simply become another industrial environment, used for the handful of manufacturing steps where Earth’s atmosphere and gravity become constraints.

Josh’s ambition is for that idea to eventually become boring.

Because by then, manufacturing materials in space would simply be another part of the industrial toolkit.

✨ Leave a review: Apple Podcasts // Spotify



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Hugo Rauch hosts New Wave, a podcast that lives at the intersection of business ambition and scientific reality. This isn't about distant predictions or abstract science; it's a grounded exploration of the technologies and companies being built right now to address our environmental future. Each episode focuses on the practical journey, dissecting the models, the breakthroughs, and the hard decisions that define the climate tech landscape. You'll hear from founders, researchers, and investors who are actively shaping this space, getting into the specifics of what works, what doesn't, and why. The conversations move beyond hype to examine the tangible mechanics of creating viable solutions, from energy storage and sustainable materials to carbon removal and regenerative agriculture. It’s for anyone who thinks about the climate challenge not just as a crisis, but as a complex and urgent field of innovation. By tuning into this podcast, you gain a clearer understanding of the economic forces and scientific principles driving the next generation of environmental solutions. New Wave connects the dots between the lab, the boardroom, and the impact we need to see in the world, offering a sober yet optimistic look at where substantive progress is truly being made.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

New Wave.
Podcast Episodes
#105 - Steve Kloos - Burnt Island Ventures - “It's All One Water” [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:34
Subscribe to the newsletter:New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack****🌊 Water’s Mispriced OpportunityWhy one of the world’s most essential markets may also be one of venture capital’s most overlooked.Ahead of The Drop in Malmö…
#104 - William Godfrey - Tangible - CapEx Financing 101 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:53
Subscribe to the newsletter:New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack****🌊 Financing the Hardware EraWhy climate founders need to stop treating equity as the default way to pay for CapEx.We’re joined by William Godfrey of Tangibl…
#103 - EDF, HTGF, Tetmet - Can Startups Reindustrialise Europe? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:25
Subscribe to the newsletter:New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack****Brought to you by:EDF: partnering with New Wave on this mini-series to explore how cleaner energy, industrial innovation, and ambitious startups can rebuild…
#102 - Marco Bertone - Syntetica - Nylon's dirty secret [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:02
Subscribe to the newsletter:New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack****🌊 Can Fashion Break Free From Fossil Fuels?How Syntetica plans to turn the textile industry’s most complex waste into a scalable source of new materials.We’…