The science that will fly on Starlab is already being proposed, tested and flown. Keeping it moving is the real test of the post-ISS transition
A microgravity experiment doesn’t start on the launch pad. It starts years earlier at a lab bench, then moves through proposals, ground testing, flight hardware, a mission and data analysis. If the results hold, more flights push it closer to a product.
That sequence is the research pipeline, and it’s the easiest part of the post-ISS transition to overlook. Researchers who pause an investigation for a few years don’t simply pick up where they left off. Funding ends, teams move on and momentum is lost. As the International Space Station approaches its planned retirement, the question isn’t only whether the next station is ready. It’s whether the science survives the handoff.
The Pipeline Starts on the ISS Today
Starlab’s commercial payload reservations now exceed 150% of the station’s initial capacity, and many of those customers are building on research already demonstrated aboard the ISS. Others are just getting started and need a way in while the ISS is still flying.
That’s why Starlab and the Center for Space and Aviation Switzerland and Liechtenstein opened the Pathways to Space Commercialization call for proposals in September. In a few weeks, it drew 45 proposals for every Starlab-funded flight opportunity, from 104 organizations in 42 countries, most in the life sciences. Selected investigations are targeted to fly to the ISS in 2028, building the data and flight experience that can carry that work onto Starlab.
The same pattern is taking shape beyond life sciences and across countries that have traditionally lacked access to space. In Pittsburgh, Starlab, The Ohio State University and Keystone Space Collaborative convened materials researchers to define what they’ll need from future commercial stations. At the International Astronautical Congress, Starlab and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs launched a call for interest to U.N. member states with limited or no access to space-based research.
Different fields, different countries, one direction: Researchers are building the data and experience now to be ready to fly when commercial platforms are operational. The pipeline is filling. The question is whether there’s a destination ready to receive it.
A Lab Built to Receive That Work
Starlab’s payload platforms were designed to be that destination. Inside, 13 internal payload platforms (each equivalent to an ISS EXPRESS Rack) are backed by 12 kilowatts of nominal power, up to 16 kW at peak, and a data backbone delivering 1 gigabit per second to each platform. Outside, 18 mounting sites across two external platforms give experiments direct exposure to space, with MDA Space’s SKYMAKER robotic arm and Starlab’s future science airlock moving hardware in and out.
Most important for continuity, the lab accommodates ISS heritage hardware alongside new payload form factors. Teams moving to a new platform don’t have to start over. They can build on what has already been proven in orbit.
The Same Team on Both Sides of the Handoff
Hardware doesn’t carry research across a transition. People do. Starlab is built by the team behind two decades of ISS operations. For example, Voyager Technologies, Starlab’s joint venture partner and mission operations lead, operates 12 active research facilities on the ISS today. The processes and partners supporting research on the ISS now are the ones preparing to support it on Starlab.
What Continuity Takes
New investigations, a destination ready to receive them and an experienced team to carry them across: That’s what protecting the pipeline takes.
The research that started on the ISS doesn’t have to stop. Starlab is being built to carry it forward.