Space Tango

Space Tango was founded in 2014 in Lexington, Kentucky, as a commercial spinoff focused on making space-based research and manufacturing accessible. The company installed its first permanent automated research facility aboard the International Space Station in 2016 and has since flown more than 100 scientific payloads to the ISS.

Space Tango specializes in automated systems for microgravity research and manufacturing. Its CubeLabs hardware line provides a standardized, modular platform, scalable beyond the 9U form factor, with subsystems such as cold-flask thermal control down to 4 degrees C and onboard flight computers for automated control and near-real-time data relay. Its newer TangoBox platform reimagines a terrestrial cleanroom lab hood as a modular, GMP-compliant automated facility with integrated six-axis robotics, aimed at pilot-scale and commercial in-space manufacturing such as regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and materials research.

The company's flight heritage spans regenerative medicine, drug development and discovery, disease modeling, materials and biomanufacturing, plant science, fundamental science, and STEM education payloads. Space Tango is also involved in NASA's Artemis II mission through the AVATAR human-health lunar orbit initiative, and has partnered with organizations such as LambdaVision on a NASA Phase 2 iNSPA award for artificial retina manufacturing in space.