Vast signs additional partners for commercial space station microgravity research

Vast is working with a network of partners for microgravity research and development on its future space stations. Credit: Vast

WASHINGTON — Commercial space station company Vast announced June 24 the addition of several companies and organizations to its network of partners for microgravity research and manufacturing.

Vast said it signed memoranda of understanding with the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California San Diego, Auxilium Biotechnologies, LambdaVision and BioOrbit. The agreements cover potential future use of Vast’s space stations by those organizations for microgravity research and related projects.

The agreements are intended to continue work those organizations have done on the International Space Station, principally in biomedical research and applications, after the ISS is retired at the end of the decade.

“The International Space Station has enabled more than two decades of scientific research in microgravity,” said Meghan Everett, Vast’s principal scientist and former deputy chief scientist for the ISS, in a statement.