Engineers, scientists and biotech leaders shift space infrastructure from stations to science parks around users, and emphasize the need for continued space access
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The center of gravity in the space economy is shifting from hardware to users. That was the message from Voyager Technologies’ Manwei Chan during a recent ASCEND 2026 panel exploring the strategic pillars for in-space R&D expansion.
Chan argued that after decades focused on rockets, satellites, and space stations, the next era will be defined by who uses that infrastructure and why – especially in healthcare, where microgravity can unlock new science and business models.
“The next generation of space utilization is about the users, as opposed to the infrastructure,” Chan said, describing Voyager’s push to build a global science park network that lowers barriers for researchers and startups to access space-enabled R&D.
The session brought together founders, economists, and investors to explore how to turn space-based health research into a scalable market – spotlighting pioneering start-ups, new commercial stations, and a healthcare investor intent on answering the question at the heart of adoption: who will pay, and for what?
Infrastructure Built Around Users
Chan outlined Voyager’s Science Park initiative in Columbus, Ohio, anchored by the Voyager Institute for Space Technology and Advancement and partnerships with NASA Glenn Research Center, Ohio State University, and other U.S. universities. Voyager is also building ties to science parks in Zurich and Japan, along with university partners in Korea. The goal is to treat infrastructure as an enabler by surrounding prospective users with capital sources, grant-writing expertise, and commercialization support.
Companies like LambdaVision and Exobiosphere, Chan noted, have already succeeded “without a lot of support services that we’re building now,” underscoring how much faster new entrants could scale in an ecosystem deliberately designed around users.
Pioneering Start-ups Turn Microgravity into Medicine
LambdaVision is already living that user-centric future. The pre-clinical-stage biotech company manufactured the first investigational protein-based artificial retina in space that could eventually help millions of people worldwide suffering from untreatable retinal degenerative diseases.
According to CEO Nicole Wagner, the company has flown nine missions to the International Space Station (ISS) to advance the science for their product and pave the way for future efforts across biotech and other industries. “While the artificial retina can be produced on Earth, the microgravity environment offers reduced sedimentation and fluid-driven disturbances, which enable improved uniformity, stability, and performance of multilayer thin films,” said Wagner.
To date, LambdaVision has produced about six artificial retinas on orbit – roughly 200 layers – and recently raised $7 million led by 776 Ventures and Aurelia Foundry Fund to advance pre-clinical studies and GMP manufacturing on the ground. Wagner said the company is targeting 2028 for the first-in-human clinical trials.
On the space side, LambdaVision has secured a Phase II award to support two additional ISS flights, currently anticipated for later this year, will scale up manufacturing capacity from small cube-box experiments to a volume that can support clinical trials. Wagner emphasized that beyond capital, frequent access to space platforms – from the ISS to upcoming commercial free-flyers – will be critical to moving from proof-of-concept to commercial product.
High-Throughput Space Biology: Exobiosphere’s Screening Platform
For Exobiosphere CEO Kyle Acierno, the key to exponential growth in space healthcare is throughput and usability. He credited the Humans in Space Challenge and broader ecosystem with effectively making the company possible, after he spent months studying principal investigators’ talks, videos, and papers and identifying the unmet need for high-throughput, automated systems in orbit.
Exobiosphere’s system, called the Orbital High-Throughput Screener (OHTS), serves as an automated miniaturized lab. Roughly the size of a carry-on suitcase, it automates complex biological procedures in orbit – such as liquid handling, cell culturing, and imaging – without requiring astronaut intervention. It combines standardized well plates, automation, and miniaturized microfluidics to run many more experiments per mission and generate the statistically significant datasets that biotechs and pharma expect.
Acierno, who won BryceTech’s first-ever Start-Up Space Pitch Competition during ASCEND, said the company initially targeted the “low-hanging fruit” – roughly 150 space-experienced researchers worldwide who already have budgets for commercial flights.
“Our next big leap is to bring this to medium and large biotechs,” he added, explaining that they see space as a differentiator in drug discovery and are looking for ways to increase the volume of drug testing in orbit.
Exobiosphere plans to fly its platform on two commercial space stations during the second quarter of 2027: Haven-1, a planned space station in development by Vast, and the Starlab commercial station, jointly developed by Voyager Technologies and Airbus.
“We can’t just keep talking to ourselves at space conferences,” he added, stressing that growth will depend on showing up in biotech and pharma venues where future users are.
While founders and operators are advancing new platforms, policy and capital signals are still catching up.
Adrian Mangiuca, co-founder of Rational Futures and former member of NASA’s Chief Economist’s office, warned that decades of supply-side investment – in rockets, stations, and orbital infrastructure – have not been matched with demand-side commitments.
“Rockets are cool, but rockets don’t matter if we don’t have a reason to go,” he said, arguing that national policy must send clear signals in sectors like biopharma, agricultural technology, and life sciences, where breakthroughs are uniquely enabled by microgravity.
From the vantage point of terrestrial healthcare, Monica Jain, a surgeon and partner at Wavemaker 360, an early-stage VC focused on the healthcare sector, brought the discussion squarely back to payers.
“The most important thing we look at in healthcare is: who’s going to pay for this and how?” she said. “In healthcare, we always start on the demand side.”
Jain called for stronger “connective tissue” between space companies and healthcare incumbents, including translators who can help space founders navigate reimbursement analysis and help providers and payers understand where microgravity-enabled manufacturing or research can reduce costs or improve outcomes.
The ASCEND panelists agreed that strong growth in space healthcare depends on dependable launch and a continuous wave of users – researchers, biotechs, and health systems – that can turn orbital infrastructure into tangible value for patients on Earth and in orbit.
