Microgravity-Enabled Drug Discovery Enabled by Voyager
Company Lands New Contract as Demand Surges for Space-Enabled Drug Research
A contract to manifest a new payload to the International Space Station, advancing microgravity-enabled drug discovery, has been awarded to Voyager Technologies by Korea-based Space LiinTech.
“Microgravity changes crystallization, growth dynamics and material properties at a fundamental level. Voyager enables access to space to harness those differences.”
Matt Magaña, Voyager Technologies
Under the contract, Voyager will provide mission integration, payload configuration support and end-to-end guidance to ensure safe operations aboard the ISS.
“The most important breakthroughs in space-enabled medicine will come from consistent, high-fidelity access to orbit,” said Matt Magaña, president, Space, Defense & National Security at Voyager. “Microgravity changes crystallization, growth dynamics and material properties at a fundamental level. Voyager enables access to space to harness those differences – not once, but continuously through the ISS and future space platforms.”
Space LiinTech’s new mission expands the company’s ongoing work in protein crystallization, a foundational technique for developing more effective therapeutics. The payload will evaluate how microgravity influences the formation, morphology, and quality of protein crystals – critical data that can lead to improved drug formulations on Earth. The mission will test an AI-driven automation and monitoring system for improved crystal formulations in space and verify the functional stability and reliability of the company’s new research module from launch to return.
“Our goal is to build the next frontier of pharmaceutical innovation,” said Byungho Kim, senior vice president, Space LiinTech. “This new mission with Voyager reflects the start of a strong, long-term partnership, and we plan to expand continuous space-based medicine research together over time. Working with Voyager allows us to operate confidently on the ISS while advancing a platform that will ultimately support broader in-space production of high-value medical technologies.”
As demand for microgravity-enabled research and development grows across the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, Voyager continues to serve as a one-stop solution for mission management and access to orbit, helping customers move from concept to spaceflight with speed, reliability and scale.