How is war being fought in space?

March 5, 2026·26 min·1 clip

A grain of sand in orbit can obliterate a satellite.

Tom Whipple opens from Spacecom Expo in London. The conference backdrop sets up an episode that moves through big satellites, small satellites, rocket propulsion, and water propulsion before turning to the larger question of what can actually be done in orbit. Professor Susie Imber, Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Leicester, is part of that discussion. The episode then shifts to manufacturing, and specifically to making medicines in space. The UK Space Agency has formed a partnership with the MHRA, the Medical Regulator, to help remove barriers to that work. Tom Whipple speaks with Jodie Howlett, who oversees in orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing at the UK Space Agency. She explains that the absence of gravity, or microgravity, changes the physics of how things behave in space. A simple example is water droplets on the International Space Station, where surface tension behaves differently. The same effects shape in-orbit manufacturing. In microgravity, it becomes possible to control buoyancy even for particles in different substrates and chemicals as they solidify. The thermal environment in space is different too, which changes thermal properties compared with Earth. Whipple asks whether this is still theoretical. Howlett says it is not. There have been tests and experiments over the past two or three decades, including aboard the International Space Station and other space stations, that have shown the idea is achievable. Whipple then asks what the policy change might make possible. He raises the prospect of big labs orbiting above us and sending down cancer treatments. Howlett says the future could be exciting and points to autonomy and robotics as ways to let in-orbit manufacturing happen remotely. In that setup, human and astronaut intervention would not always be required.

As heard by us

A conference-floor tour of satellites, microgravity, and the practical limits of making things in orbit.

BBC Inside Science begins at Spacecom Expo in London and keeps its focus on the busy mix of satellites, rocket propulsion, and water propulsion before turning toward what space might be used for next.

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Why you'd press play

If you like your space science with conference-floor bustle, policy, and a mildly improbable future.

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