{"id":315739,"date":"2026-02-25T02:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315739\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T02:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:13:21","slug":"lambdavision-books-space-on-starlab-commercial-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315739\/","title":{"rendered":"LambdaVision books space on Starlab commercial space station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 LambdaVision, a company that has used microgravity experiments on the International Space Station to develop an artificial retina, has booked space on a planned commercial successor.<\/p>\n<p>LambdaVision announced Feb. 24 that it reserved payload space on Starlab, the commercial space station under development by the Starlab Space joint venture. The company did not disclose the amount of payload space reserved or the value of the contract.<\/p>\n<p>Connecticut-based LambdaVision has worked for several years to develop artificial retinas, testing the production of protein thin films in microgravity through experiments flown on the ISS. The microgravity environment enables the creation of layers of thin films needed to produce the artificial retinas, which the company plans to test in patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis partnership with Starlab will allow us to continue to build on the significant momentum we have created toward our long- and short-term goals of leveraging LEO for both advancing our protein-based artificial retina toward commercialization and laying the groundwork for other potential commercial efforts in LEO,\u201d Nicole Wagner, chief executive of LambdaVision, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The company <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/nasa-extends-agreement-with-casis-for-iss-national-lab\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">raised a $7 million seed round in November<\/a> led by Seven Seven Six and Aurelia Foundry Fund, with additional support from Seraphim Space. In an interview at the time, Wagner said most of that funding would go toward ground-based testing and clinical trials. However, she said the company planned additional ISS experiments and was evaluating options for future commercial stations or other platforms.<\/p>\n<p>LambdaVision\u2019s agreement with Starlab \u201cenables the transition from demonstration to scalable, sustainable manufacturing, unlocking exponential growth while delivering meaningful benefits to patients on Earth,\u201d said Luis Zea, chief scientist at Starlab Space, in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement comes as Starlab Space, a joint venture led by Voyager Technologies with participation from Airbus, Mitsubishi, MDA Space and other companies, refines the design of the station and competes for the next round of NASA\u2019s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or CLD, program, which supports development of commercial successors to the ISS.<\/p>\n<p>Starlab Space announced Feb. 23 that it completed a commercial critical design review, or CCDR, for the station, one of the milestones in a funded NASA Space Act Agreement awarded under the first phase of the CLD program. The review confirmed the station\u2019s design is technically mature and executable, allowing the company to move into full-scale production.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis confirms Starlab is executable at scale and that our timeline aligns with ISS transition requirements,\u201d Marshall Smith, chief executive of Starlab Space, said in a statement. \u201cEqually important, our CCDR business plan review demonstrates that Starlab is being built around a real, diversified commercial market \u2014 one that supports sustained human presence and research in low Earth orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs investors in both LambdaVision and Voyager, we\u2019re excited to see LambdaVision\u2019s innovative artificial retina technology combined with Voyager\u2019s Starlab platform,\u201d said Rob Desborough, a partner at Seraphim Space. \u201cTogether, they are demonstrating how orbital research can accelerate new therapies and expand the possibilities for commercial science in low Earth orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 LambdaVision, a company that has used microgravity experiments on the International Space Station to develop an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4917,61,60,4918,147404,82,1935,247,25231],"class_list":{"0":"post-315739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-commercial-leo-destinations","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-iss","12":"tag-lambdavision","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-sn","15":"tag-space","16":"tag-starlab-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}