⚡TL;DR
LignoSat is the world’s first wooden satellite; ushering in an era where space structures can be made from organic materials that are more sustainable, affordable, and practical than cold steel.
🌲 What’s Unique: LignoSat is the world’s first wooden CubeSat. Crafted from magnolia and launched via the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aiming to prove wood can survive in space.
🚀 How They're Making It Happen: Backed by Kyoto University, Sumitomo Forestry, and JAXA, with support from ISS experiments, LignoSat is one of a few wooden satellite projects, and joins a broader push by NASA and DARPA toward bio-based space tech.
🙌 Why We Say Hell Yeah. There are practical reasons to use wood vs. steel (lighter, cheaper, burns up upon atmospheric re-entry, etc); but the real excitement is how it’s a stepping stone to grow space infrastructure. Tree orchards on the moon to support the space timber industry?
Photo credit Kyoto University
The orbital lumber age begins
When we first heard of wooden satellites, it kind of hurt our brains to think about. It seems so unnatural. We’ve exclusively seen metal shuttles, rockets, and other space structures. My son’s crayon-scribbled imaginary starship fleets have some wild elements (rocket thrusters facing inward), but still everything has bolt marks connecting aluminum panels. It’s really hard to imagine the Millennium Falcon with a Scandinavian aesthetic.
It also feels inherently dangerous because wood… you know… burns, rots, and warps. But the beautiful irony is the very things that make wood vulnerable on earth - oxygen, microbes, water, and fire - are completely absent in orbit.
Testing it out
Launched on November 5, 2024, LignoSat was the first wooden satellite in space. It was a 1U wooden CubeSat (10×10×10 cm, ~900 g), built from honoki (magnolia) wood using screw‑ and glue‑free Japanese woodworking techniques (a blind miter dovetail joint for our woodworking homies 👊). It launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 with the mission to measure how wood holds up under orbital extremes and test whether wood could offer a cleaner re‑entry alternative to metal satellites.
Photo credit Kyoto University. Look at that clean craftsmanship… noice.
Although the satellite successfully deployed from the ISS on December 9, 2024, the team at Kyoto University wasn’t able to establish contact after deployment.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense orbital tracking, the satellite remained intact throughout its time in space - strong evidence that wooden spacecraft can structurally survive the rigors of low-Earth orbit. However, without communication, the onboard data couldn't be retrieved and remaining mission goals went unfulfilled to prove wood’s usefulness in space.
So there’s a LignoSat-2 in the works to fully prove this all out. Specs here.
LignoSat-2 in development
Looks pretty. But… why are we doing this?
Metal is strong and durable, but it’s actually not an ideal space material for a few reasons. It’s heavy, and therefore challenging to propel into space. It’s expensive, and therefore hard for developing countries to eventually get into the space game. And also, it doesn’t burn up on re-entry, which messes with our ozone layer and creates frustratingly real nightmares for my children about a rogue satellite potentially crashing into our house. (You try calming down a 7-year old at 2am by explaining improbabilities).
Scientists have known these challenges for awhile and are constantly experimenting with other materials, including the famous FORTE satellite in 1997 which was made entirely of graphite-reinforced epoxy. There are a number of companies focusing on plastics, ceramics, carbon fibers, and 3D-printable composite materials.
All of this is cool, but they are still man-made materials extracted and processed from Earth. What if we could use materials that are grown?
First step toward growing space habitats
Neat conceptual image taken from Space Insider.
NASA and DARPA are thinking way ahead into the future. Large-scale space exploration cannot rely solely on taking man-made materials from earth and thrusting into space. We will need a way to generate new materials off-planet.
DARPA launched an RFI for Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures earlier this year - think antennas, solar sails, or even future habitats. The concept is called Engineered Living Materials (ELMs), materials that self-assemble, self-heal, and adapt using biological processes. These could be grown in microgravity or harsh environments from just a small genetic starter and the right feedstock, like lunar regolith or Martian ice.
Wood is an early test case.
“We want to launch seeds, not skyscrapers.”
⚡Why we said hell yeah!
Wooden satellites mark the beginning of a world where our tools, habitats, and systems aren’t extracted, they’re cultivated. In order to reach the outer-bounds of space, it is a physical impossibility to ship everything from Earth. We will need to rely on structures that are grown like trees, not forged like steel.
In the near-term, these wood satellites offer scientists a great chance to learn how organic materials survive in space. Additionally, there are cost and sustainability benefits for using wood-based satellites considering we are planning to launch an average of 10 satellites per day for the next decade or so! Takao Doi, the head of the Kyoto University Space Wood project, endeavors to create a space timber industry to support this proliferation.
But if nothing else, these LignoSat cubes have our imagination whirling with possibility as the idea of “wood in space” seemed so far-fetched until you realize it makes a ton of sense logistically. The paradox of an organic material flung out far from home, and the hygge comfort of watching a nebula while surrounded by the scent of cedar and pine.
Hell yeah.
Still cheaper than a house in San Francisco.
Dive in Deeper
Twitter account - for the Kyoto University Space Wood program
Wall Street Journal - coverage prior to the first LignoSat launch
EOS.org - providing a great overview of the mission
Reuters - more info on the vision of Takao Doi
New Scientist - info about DARPA’s RFI for bio-based structures
Hit us up if you’d like to learn more or if you have suggestions for future features.
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