Space Microgravity Development (SpaceMD), a wholly owned subsidiary of Redwire Corporation and a venture company focused on leveraging the microgravity environment to create research and development activities, had announced that it has signed a contract for a Starfall mission. Starfall is SpaceX’s new spacecraft that enables regular access to a microgravity environment and provides opportunities for on-orbit manufacturing, scientific research, and testing. The agreement has created a pathway for Redwire to continue expanding its commercial pharmaceutical research and manufacturing business to serve a growing customer base.
SpaceMD’s first Starfall mission has been planned for launch in 2028 and is expected to have the capacity to carry up to 32 of Redwire’s Pharmaceutical In-Space Laboratory (PIL-BOXes), making it the largest dedicated commercial microgravity research mission flown to date. Drug candidates selected through SpaceMD’s research initiatives would leverage the configurable microgravity environment and mission duration provided by Starfall before returning to Earth for analysis, supporting pharmaceutical development and other forms of commercial research.
SpaceMD has developed a new variant of PIL-BOX to contain and optimize research aboard the entire Starfall spacecraft, supporting research activities for pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology innovators, and academic researchers. This work had built upon hundreds of pharmaceutical and life sciences experiments and R&D that Redwire had flown and conducted on crewed systems from the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS).
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“Space-based pharmaceutical development is reaching an inflection point,” said John Vellinger, CEO of SpaceMD. “For decades, Redwire has built and operated the infrastructure that has enabled critical progress in microgravity research. Now, by combining our flight-proven microgravity payloads, such as PIL-BOX, with SpaceX’s innovative transportation capabilities, we’re dramatically expanding our ability to serve customers, increase research cadence, and accelerate the creation of life-changing therapies.”
SpaceMD’s PIL-BOX technology had enabled researchers to crystallize drug compounds in microgravity to develop improved formulations and new therapeutics. Since November 2023, 54 PIL-BOX systems had flown to the ISS, with 12 more being prepared for launch over September, October, and December of this year. SpaceMD had successfully crystallized 45 unique compounds, including insulin and molecules targeting cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. With the Starfall spacecraft, SpaceMD had expected to increase the scale and frequency of commercial microgravity research, supporting in-space pharmaceutical development.
