Redwire Selected by NASA to Facilitate Biotechnology Research as Part of Historic International Human Spaceflight Mission
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next- generation space economy, announced today that it has been selected by NASA to facilitate a Space Microalgae biotechnology experiment. The experiment, developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), and the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi will launch on Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Space Microalgae investigation will analyze the impact of microgravity on the growth, metabolism, and genetic activity of three strains of edible microalgae, which researchers are assessing as a potential sustainable food source for long-duration space missions. For this research mission, Redwire will manage mission integration, scientific fulfillment, and on orbit operations.
'Redwire is proud to be working with NASA, ISRO, the ICGEB, and NIPGR on this multinational biotechnology research effort that could have significant implications for future long-duration spaceflight missions to the Moon and Mars,' said John Vellinger, Redwire's President of In-Space Industries. 'As a global leader in microgravity research and development technologies, it is incredibly exciting to contribute to global scientific progress in sustainable food sources for long-duration space missions.
'We are excited to engage with Redwire to launch this important investigation to the ISS,' said Dr. Shashi Kumar from the ICGEB. 'This work will help advance our knowledge of microalgae as supplement for crew nutrition so critical for the future of long-duration spaceflight. The Government of India's BioE3 (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment, and Employment) policy has an important vertical on space biomanufacturing, and this work is the first space project to be supported under it.'
Redwire is the global leader in microgravity research, development, and manufacturing technologies, specializing in space biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, and plant research. Redwire has more than three decades of human spaceflight heritage and experience producing and operating systems and currently owns nine payloads and facilities aboard the ISS, including Redwire's trailblazing BioFabrication Facility and PIL-BOX platform. Leveraging these unique capabilities, Redwire has successfully bio-printed the first-ever human knee meniscus and first live human heart tissue in space and has successfully grown small molecule crystals optimized for drug development in microgravity.
Ax-4 will launch an international crew of astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary, and the United States to the ISS marking the second human spaceflight mission for India, Poland, and Hungary. It will also be the first time all three nations will conduct an investigation on board the ISS.
About Redwire
Redwire Corporation (NYSE:RDW) is a global space infrastructure and innovation company enabling civil, commercial, and national security programs. Redwire's proven and reliable capabilities include avionics, sensors, power solutions, critical structures, mechanisms, radio frequency systems, platforms, missions, and microgravity payloads. Redwire combines decades of flight heritage and proven experience with an agile and innovative culture. Redwire's approximately 750 employees working from 17 facilities located throughout the United States and Europe are committed to building a bold future in space for humanity, pushing the envelope of discovery and science while creating a better world on Earth. For more information, please visit redwirespace.com.
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'I was on the tennis circuit and there were a few queer women,' she told TIME. 'But it was also just the atmosphere, even the straight women. No one really cared who you slept with…I was going to the gay bars in San Francisco and dancing with my friends.' For Ride, things were different. When she was at Stanford she fell in love with her female roommate and the two were together for four years. But Ride insisted on keeping the relationship largely under wraps and that secrecy was a no-go for her partner. 'She couldn't stand being so closeted and decided to move on with her life,' says O'Shaughnessy. Ride would later choose an opposite sex partner, marrying fellow astronaut Steve Hawley in 1982, a move that was more than just an accommodating pose for a public figure in a country not ready for same-sex marriage, but less than a true union of the heart. 'They were really good friends,' O'Shaughnessy says. 'They had a lot in common. He was an astronomer, Sally was a physicist. They had stuff to talk about. They were both so thrilled to be selected to be astronauts and they both liked sports, so I think they had a solid friendship.' It wasn't enough. The two divorced in 1987, but even before they did, Ride and O'Shaughnessy began drifting together as more than just friends. At the time, O'Shaughnessy was living in Atlanta, after retiring from the tennis circuit; Ride, who was living in Houston, would visit her frequently. 'I never thought we would become romantic,' O'Shaughnessy says, 'but it just turned that way one afternoon in the spring of 1985. When she would come to town, we would typically go for runs and long walks and just spend time together. Back at my place one day, we were just talking. I had an old cocker spaniel named Annie, I leaned over to pet her, and the next thing I knew, Sally's hand was on my lower back. And it felt unusual. I turned to look at her and I could tell she was in love with me.' As O'Shaughnessy recalls in the film, she said, 'Oh boy, we're in trouble.' Ride responded, 'We don't have to be. We don't have to do this.' Then they kissed. Ride would ultimately fly twice in space, going aloft the second time in 1984, once again aboard the shuttle Challenger. After that snake-bit ship came to tragic ruin, exploding 73 seconds into its last flight and claiming the lives of all seven crewmembers, Ride and Neil Armstrong, the commander of Apollo 11 and the first man on the moon, served on the commission that investigated the causes of the accident. Ride left NASA in 1987, accepting a fellowship at Stanford and later became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. In 1989, O'Shaughnessy moved out west to live with her. It would not be until 2013, a year after Ride's death, that California would permanently legalize gay marriage, and it would not be until 2015 that the Supreme Court would do the same nationwide. That was alright with Ride, who, as with her relationship with her college roommate, continued to believe that her love for O'Shaughnessy should remain a quiet and relatively private thing. But all that began to change in 2011. It was early that year that Ride first showed signs of illness—poor appetite and yellowing cheeks. Her doctor diagnosed pancreatic cancer. 'The doctor never said what stage. He never said the worst stage. We thought she was going to get better, and we were trying everything,' O'Shaughnessy recalls. 'She was doing acupuncture, we were meditating, we became vegans. And then one day, we're at the oncologist, and he said, 'It's time for hospice.' And Sally and I were, like, shocked.' Not long before Ride died, the couple grew concerned that O'Shaughnessy would not be allowed to visit her in the hospital, help make critical care decisions, or share property because they were not married—and could not be in California. So they went for the next best thing, registering as certified domestic partners, which afforded them the necessary rights. 'It's the worst phrase,' says O'Shaughnessy. 'We used to call each other certified domestic hens, because it's such a bad term.' Whatever name they went by, they would not get to enjoy their newly legalized status for long. Ride passed on July 23, 2012, just 17 months after she was diagnosed. At first NASA planned no formal memorial or celebration of Ride's life. Then, the next month, Armstrong died and a memorial was held at the Washington National Cathedral, with 1,500 people in attendance. 'I got mad,' O'Shaughnessy says. She called then-Senator Barbara Mikulski (D, Md.) who chaired the Senate Committee on Appropriations and oversaw NASA's budget. Mikulski called then-NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, who at first offered up a relatively intimate affair for 300 people at the National Air and Space Museum. O'Shaughnessy pressed, and ultimately won approval for a far more prepossessing event at the Kennedy Center in 2013. Today, Ride's legacy lives on in Sally Ride Science, a nonprofit founded by Ride and O'Shaughnessy in 2001 to inspire girls to become scientifically literate and to draw girls and women into the STEM fields. It lives on too in astronaut Peggy Whitson, who now holds the U.S. record for most time spent in space, at 675 days over four missions. It lives on in Christina Koch, who will become the first woman to travel to the moon, when she flies aboard Artemis II on its circumlunar journey in 2026. It lives on in NASA's current 46-person astronaut corps, of whom 19 are women. Ride flew high, Ride flew fast, and Ride flew first—doing service to both science and human equity in the process. Sally powerfully tells her tale.
