6 August 2026 a subsidiary of Redwire Corporation — Space Microgravity Development (SpaceMD) — announced the acquisition of a separate mission on the SpaceX Starfall return vehicle. The launch is planned for the end 2028 year.
For reference: Redwire is an American aerospace and defense technology company, which
is a world leader in space infrastructure development, unmanned systems (UAV) and microgravity biotechnologies. In December 2024 year, the company officially entered the Ukrainian market, by registering a subsidiary company "Redwire Defense Tech Ukraine" LLC in Kyiv.
Space Microgravity Development specializes in space pharmacology, drug development, biotechnology and growing high-quality protein crystals in microgravity conditions (weightlessness)
for the needs of earthly medicine.
The device will be transported to 32 modernized experimental packages of the Pharmaceutical In-Space Laboratory (PIL-BOX) by Redwire. The mission will be used for pharmaceutical research using the adaptive microgravity environment and Starfall flight duration.
SpaceMD became the first established microgravity research company, which announced the use of Starfall. WITH 2023 of the year Redwire delivered to the ISS 54 PIL-BOX system; will 12 scheduled for launch this year. Redwire CEO Peter Cannito noted, that Starfall's capabilities will significantly accelerate the delivery of pharmaceuticals, biotechnological and other services for production in microgravity. According to him, this mission will be the largest single commercial microgravity research mission to date.
The contract shows growing interest in commercial research and production
in microgravity, and also about increasing competition in the market of return devices.
Source: https://spacenews.com