SPACE PHILICLELP-1 · LIFE SCIENCE IN ORBIT

LELP-1 · FREE-FLYING, RECOVERABLE

A laboratory in orbit for life science in microgravity

LELP-1 carries 32 sealed experiment bays for 2 to 14 days at 550 km, runs them automatically, and brings the whole lab home under an inflatable heat shield. Each customer signs their own commands. This catalog shows 15 experiments LELP-1 is designed to fly, what earlier missions found, and exactly what each one needs from the satellite.

Experiment bays3216 large · 16 medium
Per bay6 kg · 30 Wlarge; medium 3.3 kg · 15 W
Bay temperature4 to 45 °Ceach bay its own setpoint
Time in orbit2 to 14 daysset by the longest protocol
Returnwhole lab2.6 m inflatable heat shield

Configure your mission →Run a mission simulationLELP-1 design A satellite per experimentWatch a flight in the twin

Start here1 · choose a bay on LELP-1 or your own satellite2 · load an experiment 3 · get your protocol and the payload guide: place your cells, and it is good to go4 · see the mission that follows 5 · run it: the whole mission simulated, launch to your lab

15 experiments LELP-1 can fly

Each page gives the science, the flights that came before, a protocol LELP-1 can run without a crew, what is measured in orbit and after the return, the module with a mass and power estimate, and the limits of a short uncrewed flight.

Core capability areas

01Stem-cell organoids

Stem-cell organoids

Organoids grown from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are small 3-D models of human brain or heart tissue.

Large bay37 °C14 days02Protein crystallisation

Protein crystallization for drug formulation

Many drugs are proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies, and today these are usually given by intravenous infusion in hospital.

Large bay20 °C10 days03Microbial culture

Antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteria

Drug-resistant bacteria are a large cause of death on Earth: WHO estimates bacterial antimicrobial resistance was associated with more than 4.7 million deaths globally in 2021.

Large bay37 °C7 days04Plant growth

Seed germination and root growth

Every crop-growing system for long missions starts with a seed that must sprout, find its way and form a working root.

Large bay22 °C8 days05Alloy solidification

Alloy solidification

Most metal parts start as a liquid that freezes in a mould.

Large bay70 °C10 daysneeds a new bay type06Bioreactor

Bioreactor for tissue engineering and biomanufacturing

Engineered tissues such as cartilage and heart muscle are hard to grow on Earth.

Large bay37 °C14 days07Microfluidics

Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip and organ-chips

Organ-chips are small devices where living human cells line tiny perfused channels, so they behave more like real tissue than a flat dish.

Large bay37 °C10 days08Cell mechanobiology

Cell mechanobiology: how cells sense gravity and load

Cells sense load through the actin cytoskeleton, focal adhesions and the nucleus.

Large bay37 °C7 days

7 more experiments

09Microbiology / materials

Biofilm formation on spacecraft and medical materials

Bacteria that settle on a surface build a slime-covered community called a biofilm.

Large bay37 °C7 days10Life support / bioproduction

Microalgae and cyanobacteria for oxygen and food

Long crewed missions cannot carry all their oxygen and food from Earth.

Large bay33 °C12 days11Cardiology / drug safety

Human heart muscle cells from stem cells

Some drugs were withdrawn from the market because they caused arrhythmias and sudden death.

Large bay37 °C11 days12Immunology

Immune T-cell activation

Astronauts show immune dysregulation and reactivation of latent herpesviruses that last through 6-month ISS missions.

Large bay37 °C7 days13Bone biology / osteoporosis

Bone cells: resorption and mineralization

On Earth, osteoporosis comes from an imbalance between osteoclasts, which remove bone, and osteoblasts, which build it.

Large bay37 °C12 days14Muscle biology / ageing

C. elegans muscle and ageing

Astronauts lose muscle in orbit, and people on Earth lose muscle with age, disuse and diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Large bay20 °C14 days15Oncology

3D tumour spheroids for drug testing

Most early cancer drug tests use flat (2D) cell layers.

Large bay37 °C11 days

What each experiment asks of the satellite

Read across a row to see what an experiment needs; read down a column to see how many experiments a capability serves. These experiments set LELP-1's payload requirements (how the design answers them).

ExperimentBaySample °CLED lightFluidicsImagingVideo1 g controlCold returnAbove 45 °CDosimetry
01 Stem-cell organoidsL37
02 Protein crystallization for drug formulationL20
03 Antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteriaL37
04 Seed germination and root growthL22
05 Alloy solidificationL70
06 Bioreactor for tissue engineering and biomanufacturingL37
07 Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip and organ-chipsL37
08 Cell mechanobiology: how cells sense gravity and loadL37
09 Biofilm formation on spacecraft and medical materialsL37
10 Microalgae and cyanobacteria for oxygen and foodL33
11 Human heart muscle cells from stem cellsL37
12 Immune T-cell activationL37
13 Bone cells: resorption and mineralizationL37
14 C. elegans muscle and ageingL20
15 3D tumour spheroids for drug testingL37

standard bay service option LELP-1 adds new capability the design adds for this

Flown in the twin: RadSenRegen-1

RadSenRegen's WJ-MSCs vs Muse cells, with and without exosomes (7 days, module 17) is the first customer experiment flown end to end in Space Philic's mission twin: cryopreserved launch, automated thaw at 37 °C, exosome dosing, imaging every 4 h, dosimetry, preservation, return and courier handover. Open the customer console →

How a flight works

  1. L − 24 hLate load

    cells and samples go into their bays frozen or dormant; the lab is closed

  2. T + 0Launch on RUPAK

    the reusable booster flies back; the upper stage carries the lab to orbit

  3. 0 h 47 minOrbit

    550 km dawn-dusk sun-synchronous, trimmed by the upper stage

  4. 1 h 13 minYour start

    you sign the start; the bay thaws and runs your protocol on its own

  5. days 1 to 14Operations

    media changes, dosing, imaging, dosimetry; daily data through ground stations in India and Europe

  6. 7 d 2 h 14 minPreserve and pack

    samples fixed, lysed or chilled; every bay latched for entry

  7. 7 d 3 h 20 minHome

    inflatable heat shield, parachute, splashdown at 7.9 m/s

  8. 7 d 3 h 42 minYour courier

    bay handed over on the recovery ship, 21 min after splashdown

Times from a run of the mission twin (lab operations last as long as the longest protocol on board; this run: 7.1 days).

Where LELP-1 sits among earlier platforms

Most results on the experiment pages come from the ISS and from free-flyers and capsules like these. Two 2025 capsules show how hard the return is: one splashed down far from its ships, one was lost before splashdown. LELP-1's niche: many independent customers per flight, a launch from India, and the whole lab back on a ship next to the splashdown point.

PlatformFlownKindMassDurationPayload returnHighlights
Bion-M No.1Roscosmos; mouse experiments by the Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP), Russian Academy of Sciences · Russia2013 (19 April to 19 May)biosatellitenot confirmed in opened sources30 daysDescent module landed near Orenburg (Russia); mice examined at the landing site about 3 h after landing45 mice flew for 30 days to study how key physiological systems adapt to microgravity. After landing the mice could not keep a steady posture; some motor recovery was seen 6-8 h after landing. 16 of 45 flight mice survived (36%) vs 38 of 45 ground controls (84%). 15 flight mice died from a failure of the food distribution system; adjusted flight survival was about 53%. Cabin held at about 21 C.118
Foton-M No.4Roscosmos · Russia2014 (18 July to 1 September)biosatelliteabout 1,900 lb (about 860 kg) of specimens and support hardware; total spacecraft mass not confirmedabout 44 days (shortened from a planned two months)Capsule landed in the Orenburg region, RussiaCarried five geckos, fruit flies, dried seeds, silkworm eggs and semiconductor crystal growth experiments. Stopped responding to ground commands hours after launch; link restored about a week later. All five geckos died. The fruit flies developed and bred in space.2
SJ-10 (Shijian-10)Chinese Academy of Sciences · China2016 (launched 5 April 17:38 UTC, 6 April Beijing time; capsule landed 18 April)recoverable capsulenot confirmed in opened sources12 days for the return capsule; the orbital module kept running for a few more daysReturn capsule landed in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, after a parachute-assisted descent19 experiments in fluid physics, combustion, materials science and biotechnology. The capsule returned 11 loads (9 bioscience, 2 microgravity); 8 stayed on the orbital module. Early mouse embryos developed to blastocysts in orbit. ESA flew its first experiment on a Chinese mission (Soret coefficient in crude oil).34
PharmaSatNASA Ames Research Center (flight results paper led by Santa Clara University authors) · USA2009 (launched 19 May)cubesatnot confirmed in opened source (10 x 10 x 30 cm cubesat-class structure)primary experiment run in the first week of operationNone; data downlinked onlyAutonomous culture of yeast at several antifungal concentrations. The mission was declared a success after the first week, once the experiment data were downloaded. Built on lessons from GeneSat-1.5
EcAMSatNASA Ames Research Center · USA2017 (experiment 24 to 30 November)cubesatnot confirmed in opened source (6U)about 1 week of experiment incl. 144 h incubation after antibiotic exposureNone; optical data downlinkedNASA's first 6U biological cubesat. Two uropathogenic E. coli strains dosed with three gentamicin levels; metabolic activity read with alamarBlue using the payload's LED and detector. Results compared with an identical payload run in the lab at NASA Ames.619
BioSentinelNASA Ames Research Center · USA2022 to present (launched 16 November 2022)cubesatnot confirmed in opened sourcelong-duration; still operating in deep space in 2024None; data onlySecondary payload on SLS Artemis I. Desiccated yeast in 18 microfluidic cards of 16 microwells each. A TimePix-based radiation spectrometer ties measured dose to the biological response. NASA's first biological cubesat to probe interplanetary space.7
Varda W-1Varda Space Industries (bus: Rocket Lab Photon) · USA2023 to 2024 (launched June 2023 on Transporter-8; landed 21 February 2024)recoverable capsulecapsule under 90 kg, about 90 cm diameterabout 8 months in orbitParachute landing at the Utah Test and Training Range; FAA commercial reentry license granted 14 February 2024Grew crystals of Form III of the antiretroviral drug ritonavir. First commercial spacecraft to land on a US military test range and on US soil, and the first approved to reenter under an FAA Part 450 license. Reporting cites delays in getting the reentry license.89
POEM-4 (PSLV-C60 / SpaDeX)ISRO, with payloads from non-government entities · India2024 to 2025 (launched 30 December 2024; 1000 orbits by 4 March 2025)orbital stage platformnot confirmed in opened sourcesCROPS-1 designed for 5 to 7 days; platform operated for monthsNone; experiments stay on the PSLV fourth stage, data by telemetry24 payloads (14 ISRO/DOS, 10 non-government). Life science: CROPS (cowpea germination to the two-leaf stage, 20-30 C, sensors for CO2, O2, pressure, temperature, humidity, soil moisture), Amity APEMS (spinach callus), RVSat-1 (growth of the gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron). Cowpea sprouted by day 4; two leaves by day 5.101112
ICE Cubes facility (Columbus, ISS)Space Applications Services with ESA · Belgium / Europe2018 to present (first units on SpaceX CRS-15, launched 29 June 2018)ISS facilityper cube: 10 x 10 x 10 cm units (mass not confirmed)first experiments stayed about four monthsSamples return on cargo flights, which run about every three monthsPlug-and-play cubes in Columbus with 24-hour remote login to data and commands from the control centre in Belgium. First two experiments, both from the International Space University: methane-producing microbes and an interactive art piece.13
Phoenix 1ATMOS Space Cargo · Germany / France2025 (April, on SpaceX Bandwagon-3)recoverable capsulenot confirmed in opened sourceone orbit; reentry about 2 h after launchNot recovered; splashdown about 2,000 km off Brazil, recovery not plannedTested an inflatable heat shield in a real reentry (ATMOS designs it to return payloads without ablative material or parachutes; LELP-1 also plans an inflatable shield but adds a parachute). Carried payloads from Frontier Space, Imperial College London, DLR and IDDK, incl. biological experiments.17
Mission PossibleThe Exploration Company · Germany / France2025 (launched 23 June from Vandenberg)recoverable capsule25 payloads totalling 300 kg; capsule mass not confirmedshort orbital flight (exact duration not stated in opened source)Lost: communications cut at 26 km, just before the phase leading to parachute opening; capsule lost before splashdownPowered all 25 payloads on and off and made a controlled reentry. The parachute system was not drop-tested, and critical subsystems were single-string, risks the company accepted to meet schedule and budget.16

Sources

  1. Andreev-Andrievskiy A et al., 2014, Mice in Bion-M 1 Space Mission: Training and Selection, PLoS One https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4136787
  2. Spaceflight Now, 2014, news report on the landing of Russia's Foton-M4 research satellite https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1409/01fotonm4/
  3. Spaceflight Now, 2016, Chinese research craft launched on two-week mission https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/05/chinese-space-capsule-launched-on-two-week-mission/
  4. National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2016, news page on SJ-10 capsule return https://english.nssc.ac.cn/news/202407/t20240701_672250.html
  5. Kitts C et al., 2009, Initial Flight Results from the PharmaSat Biological Microsatellite Mission, Small Satellite Conference https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/mech/39
  6. Lera M (NASA Ames), 2023, E. coli AntiMicrobial Satellite (EcAMSat) Results and Lessons Learned from NASA's First 6U Biological CubeSat, NASA Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/community-of-practice/e-coli-antimicrobial-satellite-ecamsat-results-and-lessons-learned-from-nasas-first-6u-biological-cubesat
  7. NASA, BioSentinel mission page https://www.nasa.gov/?p=664444
  8. Varda Space Industries, W-1 mission page https://www.varda.com/mission/w-1
  9. Space Explored, 2024, Varda Space pioneers space manufacturing with landmark capsule recovery https://spaceexplored.com/2024/02/25/varda-space-pioneers-space-manufacturing-with-landmark-capsule-recovery/
  10. ISRO, CROPS: A Leap in Space Biological Experiments https://www.isro.gov.in/CROPS.html
  11. ISRO, POEM-4 in PSLV-C60 / SpaDeX Mission (payload list) https://www.isro.gov.in/POEM_4_Payloads_spadex.html
  12. ISRO, POEM Completed 1000 Orbits in Space https://www.isro.gov.in/POEMCompletedOrbitsSpace.html
  13. ESA, 2018, Dragon delivers some ICE https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Research/Dragon_delivers_some_ICE
  14. NASA, A Researcher's Guide to: Acceleration Environment (NP-2015-11-040-JSC) https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/acceleration-environment-iss-mini-book_detail-508c.pdf
  15. Berger T et al., 2016, DOSIS & DOSIS 3D: long-term dose monitoring onboard the Columbus Laboratory of the International Space Station (ISS), Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate, doi:10.1051/swsc/2016034 https://elib.dlr.de/107982
  16. The Exploration Company, 2025, Mission Possible: re-entry milestone achieved for Europe's reusable spaceflight https://exploration.space/blog/mission-possible-re-entry-milestone-achieved-for-europes-reusable-spaceflight
  17. ATMOS Space Cargo, PHOENIX 1 mission page https://atmos-space-cargo.com/?p=3750
  18. Dachev TP et al., 2015, BION-M No. 1 spacecraft radiation environment as observed by the RD3-B3 radiometer-dosimeter in April-May 2013, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 123:82-91, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2014.12.011 https://cris.fau.de/publications/106622384?lang=de_DE
  19. NASA Ames, 2017, NASA is sending E. coli to space for astronaut health https://www.nasa.gov/?p=570112