Virgin Galactic is collaborating with Redwire to create payload racks for experimental flights on its upcoming Delta-class suborbital spaceplane. The January 30th announcement details a partnership focused on developing research payload lockers adaptable to Delta-class vehicles. These lockers will be built using technology from Redwire’s International Space Station projects.
“We’re leveraging everything we have learned in our 35 years of outfitting crewed spacecraft to develop these lockers,” said John Vellinger, president of in-space industries at Redwire. “Virgin Galactic’s Delta spaceships bring to market a new capability that expands the opportunities for commercial space innovation.”
Virgin Galactic has already conducted research on its VSS Unity suborbital vehicle, including a dedicated mission for the Italian Air Force and flights carrying researchers. Sirisha Bandla, vice president of research operations at Virgin Galactic, explained that the Delta-class vehicles will use a modular design similar to Unity, allowing for payload racks with four lockers to replace seats.
“Our new lockers are being designed to be much more plug-and-play than our past lockers, and we’re utilizing Redwire’s experience in orbital microgravity research for that,” Bandla stated. “What we’re trying to do is take out as much engineering for our customers as possible, so that what they really need to do is just bring their sensors and their experiment to put into these lockers.”
These lockers will support both autonomous and human-tended experiments, featuring real-time data transmission—a significant upgrade from Unity’s payload capabilities. This design aligns with the broader vision of suborbital spaceflight research as a stepping stone to orbital platforms.
“We’ve always touted suborbital as critical to de-risking technologies that go to orbit,” Bandla noted. Redwire's orbital experience is crucial in this process, making it easier for suborbital researchers to transition their payloads to orbital destinations. Suborbital research continues to attract significant interest, expanding beyond established space researchers to encompass scientists from various fields exploring microgravity applications.
“It’s really being driven not only by our capabilities, but also by the community being excited about our capabilities.” Despite a flight hiatus to focus on Delta-class development (with commercial flights anticipated in 2026), interest remains strong, fueled by published research from previous Unity missions. The goal is to simplify the process, making microgravity research accessible even to scientists without extensive aerospace engineering backgrounds.
“We’re seeing researchers that want to do research in microgravity, but they’re not rocket scientists, they’re not aerospace engineers,” Bandla said. “This is the complexity we’re trying to take out to allow scientists to not have to go partner with an engineer to fly something in space.”