Redwire’s industrial crystallizer and “Golden Balls” experiment. Photo: Redwire Space

The latest resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched early Monday included new in-space drug development technology by Redwire. 

Redwire launched a high-volume industrial crystallizer that is capable of processing up to 200 times the volume of samples than its previous platform for in-space pharmaceutical development, PIL-BOX. Redwire said the goal is to turn insights from the PIL-BOX investigations into large-scale production for commercial applications. 

SpaceX launched the 32nd Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission for NASA on April 21 on a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission carried 6,700 pounds of supplies to the ISS, including the new crystallizer. 

The new crystallizer will undertake an experiment called “Golden Balls” to produce gold nanospheres in space, in what could be a first of its kind milestones. John Vellinger, Redwire’s president of In-Space Industries, said that gold nanospheres could lead to early testing and diagnosis of cancer and other diseases, targeted drug delivery, and enhanced radiation and photothermal therapy.