Present at Vintage Altaroc Odyssey 2021, Sierra Space has just announced its partnership with American aerospace manufacturer Redwire. Their objective? To facilitate the manufacture of medicines in space.
Redwire will create biotech facilities that will later be integrated into Sierra Space's space platform.
This equipment will accelerate pharmaceutical and biotechnological research as part of Sierra Space's Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat project.
" We're going into space not only for science and discovery, but also to improve life on Earth," Mike Gold, Redwire's chief growth officer, told CNBC. " Many medicines are based on crystals. In space, you can create perfect, or at least different, crystals that can then be harnessed to create new versions of drugs with greater efficacy and the ability to last longer."
Plant development is underway, with delivery scheduled for the 4th quarter.
Biological and pharmaceutical research and production are extremely buoyant markets for microgravity platforms in space. Redwire is not the only company to position itself in this market. Varda and Space Forge are also stepping up their trials.
Sierra Space's LIFE project will be a central component of the Orbital Reef space station, which will replace the International Space Station(ISS) by the end of the decade. Orbital Reef will be designed as a "business park" in space, accommodating both astronauts for their research work and space tourists.
