Missions
1 Flight, 1 Mission
3 Missions
2026:
2027:
All missions are a round trip to space & back. Our hardware will be integrated into a capsule that will launch to LEO, operate on-orbit for 2-3 months, then return to Earth. These missions will validate our technology and demonstrate our ability to deliver high-quality in-space manufactured materials at scale and reliable cadence.
The focus of our Phase II NASA SBIR Ignite award, Lassen is a parabolic flight demonstration of a full semiconductor sample melt and recrystallization experiment. This flight will be done with an aircraft that flies in large parabolas to provide a microgravity environment for up to 20s at a time. While this isn't enough time to grow a large crystal, it's enough to gather valuable thermal data on furnace operation in microgravity.
Lassen AM1
Q3 2026
Coso AM3
Coso is a sample and subsystem survivability study flying with Reditus Space this year. The capsule will splash down and be recovered off the coast of Florida, then our payload will be removed and shipped back to our Mountain View HQ. This will be our first flight with Reditus, and the first Astral payload sent to space!
Q4 2026
Wrangell is a discovery mission testing the launch and return survivability for a variety of samples and subsystems. This payload will test our ability to monitor our processes in real time with visual feedback, critical to validating remote furnace operation on-orbit. Our flight provider is TBA later in 2026.
Wrangell AM4
Q1 2027
Astral Materials was awarded a NASA TechLeap Prize in partnership with SpaceWorks Enterprises. Shasta will be a full hardware demonstration of our proprietary microgravity crystal growth furnace, manufacturing a small volume of silicon on-orbit. Silicon is the most widely studied semiconductor on Earth and ultra-high quality silicon grown in space can serve advanced applications like photonics and quantum computing. After capsule recovery our payload will be shipped to our Mountain View HQ for furnace refurb and sample processing.
Shasta AM2
Q2 2027
Details coming soon!