Space Tango

Space Tango is a Lexington, Kentucky-based company founded in 2014 specializing in the design, manufacture, and operation of automated research and manufacturing hardware for the International Space Station (ISS) and future commercial space stations, enabling companies to leverage the unique microgravity environment for scientific discovery and product development without the need for in-house space engineering expertise. The company's flagship product line is the TangoLab facility — a standard ISPR (International Standard Payload Rack) payload unit containing multiple smaller CubeLab modules that autonomously conduct experiments in microgravity, operating around the clock without crew intervention. Each CubeLab contains its own temperature control, fluid handling, power, data logging, and in some cases imaging systems, enabling biology, chemistry, materials science, and pharmaceutical crystallization experiments in a self-contained standardized format. Space Tango has flown payloads for pharmaceutical companies investigating protein crystal growth, agri-biotech companies studying plant genetics in microgravity, food and beverage companies (including a bourbon aging experiment for Maker's Mark), and materials companies investigating solidification processes that produce different microstructures in zero gravity. Beyond research services, Space Tango is developing manufacturing capabilities — where the microgravity environment enables unique product formation processes impossible on Earth, such as perfectly spherical glass microspheres, ultra-pure optical fibers without gravity-induced heterogeneity, and organoids (3D cell structures) that grow in clinically relevant geometries only in microgravity. Space Tango competes with Axiom Space's research services, Sierra Space's commercial station plans, Nanoracks (now Voyager Space), and Redwire Corporation in the ISS commercial payload and manufacturing market.