National Security Experiment Headed To ISS Under New Mission Deal
Sandia Labs Taps Voyager For End-To-End LEO Mission Management
Voyager Technologies has secured a mission management contract to fly Sandia National Laboratories’ Big Boy demonstration aboard the International Space Station in 2027, adding a new national security research experiment to the station’s manifest.
“Our station-agnostic, integrated approach to mission management enables space access for everyone.”
Matt Magaña, Voyager
The award highlights what the companies describe as continued and growing demand for access to low Earth orbit for national security research, with additional contracts expected to follow. Voyager will serve as mission integrator for the Sandia payload, taking the project from planning on the ground through operations in orbit.
“Our station-agnostic, integrated approach to mission management enables space access for everyone from academia and government agencies to civil, commercial and defense industries,” said Matt Magaña, president of Space, Defense and National Security at Voyager. “Supporting Sandia National Labs through every phase of execution from Earth to orbit is another proof point for how we are making America’s presence in space durable, commercially viable and strategically strong,” Magaña said.
Under the contract, Voyager will provide end-to-end mission management services, including experiment design, payload integration, safety review, manifest and mission planning, and on-orbit operations. The Big Boy payload will ride on Voyager’s NEL external payload platform, which can be mounted on the company’s Bishop Airlock, described as the first permanent commercially owned module on the International Space Station.
Voyager said the first NEL platform is slated to fly to the station aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s HTV-X2 cargo mission. A second NEL platform is planned to follow in the spring of 2027 to meet what the company characterized as growing customer demand for external payload accommodations.
Sandia National Laboratories, based in New Mexico, is a multi-mission laboratory focused on advancing U.S. national security through science-based technology development. The Big Boy demonstration and validation mission is intended to prove on-orbit operations of parallel sensors that will be used to better understand lightning emissions and signals, the natural radiation environment, and how sensors and optics degrade when exposed to launch, vacuum and reentry forces.
The companies did not release financial terms of the agreement or details about the specific launch vehicle that will carry the HTV-X2 spacecraft to orbit.