FIELD NOTES · NOV 2026
Capsule R-7 came home with 41 kilograms of crystal
A recovery morning in the desert: what was aboard, what the log says, and what happens to a boule next.
READ THE ENTRY →
ANVIL-1 · ORBITAL MANUFACTURING STATION
We manufacture
in orbit, not
on Earth.
Anvil Orbital grows alloys, crystals and machine parts in sustained microgravity aboard Anvil-1, then returns them to customers on Earth.
SPECIMEN — ANVIL-1, LIVE READINGS
STATION
Anvil-1 · 412 km
INCLINATION
51.6°
CREW
0 — fully robotic
POWER
84 kW · array + battery
MISSIONS — AN ORBIT TIMELINE
Five missions,
one trajectory.
-
M-01 · Foundry Prime
The first furnace module, launched on a rideshare and commissioned over 41 days. It has run alloy cycles continuously since — the orbit every other mission now shares.
2024 — IN SERVICE
PERIOD 92 MIN · BAY 1 -
M-02 · Crystal Line
A second bay fitted for protein and semiconductor crystal growth, where a still melt matters more than a hot one. First boule returned in March 2025, defect density below the terrestrial reference in the same run.
2025 — IN SERVICE
PERIOD 118 MIN · BAY 2 -
M-03 · Return Capsule R-7
The logistics loop made regular: a capsule that leaves with feedstock and comes home with finished parts, on a published window every six weeks. R-7 landed at 06:40 UTC with 41 kg of crystal aboard.
2026 — IN SERVICE
CYCLE 42 DAYS · 60 KG DOWN -
M-04 · Anvil-2 Keel
The keel of a second, larger station, assembled robotically from parts the first station made. A factory that builds its own successor is the whole argument of this company, in one mission.
2027 — IN ASSEMBLY
PERIOD 226 MIN · STRUCTURE -
M-05 · Lunar Freight Trial
A contracted trial: high-purity feedstock refined on Anvil-1, transferred to a lunar-bound freighter. If the trial holds, the same cycle that serves Earth orbit serves the Moon.
2028 — PLANNED
PERIOD 641 MIN · TRANSFER
PERIODS ARE GROUND-TRACK REPEATS, READ OFF THE SAME CLOCK AS THE FIGURE ABOVE.
RETURNED MASS — CAPSULE R-7, RECOVERED AT FREMANTLE, 06:40 UTC
41 kg
Forty-one kilograms of grown, finished and inspected parts came home on R-7 — crystal, alloy and seal, each piece logged against the orbit that made it. The largest single return we have landed, and the first one a customer weighed before we did.
FIG. 12 — THE RETURN, WEIGHED ON RECOVERY · DEMO DATA
TECHNOLOGY — FOUR INSTRUMENTS
The station,
drawn to scale.
Microgravity furnaces
Three chambers holding 1,204 °C to within a degree for weeks at a time. Without convection, the melt is still — and stillness is the ingredient no ground furnace can sell.
Robotic handling
No crew, no gloves, no exceptions: every transfer between furnace, inspection and capsule is done by two arms that work in vacuum and log every move to the gram.
Return capsules
Sixty kilograms down, every six weeks, on a window published a year ahead. The capsule is the product's front door: what grows up there has to survive coming home.
Radiation-hard compute
The station schedules itself — thermal, power, traffic — on compute built to shrug off the radiation environment, with a ground veto on every consequential decision.
PROCESS — THE MANUFACTURING CYCLE
Launch. Grow. Finish. Return.
-
01
Launch
Feedstock flies as dense, dumb mass — the cheapest cargo there is. Nothing fragile goes up; everything fragile is made up there.
-
02
Grow
The cycle runs for days or weeks in a still melt. Temperature, vibration and orientation are logged continuously, and the log ships with the part.
-
03
Finish
Cutting, polishing and inspection happen on orbit, where a part's weight costs nothing to hold. What fails inspection is re-melted, not returned.
-
04
Return
Finished parts ride the next capsule down and are in the customer's lab within days — with the full cycle log as their certificate.
MEASUREMENTS — CAPABILITY, COUNTED
Grown, then measured.
| Measurement | On Anvil-1 | Terrestrial reference | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crystal defect density | 38× fewer | — | Same boule, split run, etched and counted blind |
| Alloy grain uniformity | ±2.1% | ±9.4% | Cross-section microscopy, 40 samples per cycle |
| Furnace uptime, trailing year | 99.2% | — | Station log, unplanned stops only |
| Return mass per capsule | 60 kg | — | Capsule R-7 manifest, weighed on recovery |
| Feedstock-to-part cycle | 19 days | 26 days | Median of the last 12 production cycles |
DEMO DATA
PARTNERS — NAMED, NOT BADGED
Who flies with us.
Helios Launch Consortium
RIDESHARE · TWO FLIGHTS A YEAR
Kestrel Materials Group
FEEDSTOCK · ALLOYS & PRECURSORS
Northfield University — Orbital Laboratory
RESEARCH · CRYSTAL CHARACTERISATION
Port of Returns, Fremantle
RECOVERY · CAPSULE LOGISTICS
CAREERS — THE GROUND CREW
The factory is up there.
The jobs are down here.
Flight Dynamics Engineer
ZÜRICH · RENDEZVOUS & DOCKING
Furnace Operator, Night Cycle
REMOTE OPS · ROTATING WATCH
Return Logistics Lead
FREMANTLE · CAPSULE RECOVERY
NEWS — FROM THE FLIGHT LOG
Latest entries.
ENGINEERING · NOV 2026
Anvil-2 keel passes its first pressure test
The second station’s keel held 2.4 bar differential for 72 hours — the longest ground test we have run, and the gate for the 2027 launch window.
READ THE ENTRY →OPERATIONS · OCT 2026
Fremantle, 06:40: inside a capsule recovery
Ninety minutes from splashdown to weighed and logged. The recovery crew walks through the morning R-7 came home.
READ THE ENTRY →QUESTIONS — ASKED AT THE BRIEFING
Before you book.
Today: nickel and cobalt superalloys, protein crystals for structural biology, and semiconductor boules up to 200 mm. The common thread is a melt that benefits from being still — if convection is your defect, orbit is your furnace.
The median cycle is 19 days of production plus the next return window — six weeks at most, published a year ahead. A first engagement usually flies within one quarter of signing.
You get the full log and a re-run at no charge. Material that fails inspection on orbit is re-melted there; you are never shipped a part we would not sign.
No. Anvil-1 is fully robotic, which is why it can hold a furnace watch for weeks without a shift change. The crew is on the ground, in Zürich and Fremantle, and they answer the briefing calls.