Nasa has appointed aerospace startup Gravitics to build an orbital hangar designed to make it easier for spacecraft to deliver materials to and from space.
The Multiple-Downmass Hangar will be capable of holding multiple return vehicles on a single orbital platform, ready to bring samples and other materials produced in-orbit back to Earth without waiting for a dedicated return flight.
Upmass is used to describe the launching of payloads to space, and has become a relatively ubiquitous capability for private firms, especially in recent years with the advent of reusable rockets from SpaceX. But capacity for downmass, which is when payloads are returned back to Earth, is much more difficult and limited.
Commercial space applications, such as semiconductor crystal growth, bioprinting and pharmaceutical protein crystallisation, require frequent, on-demand return of delicate materials rather than waiting months for batch returns. But returning research materials or samples of space bodies back...