Issued on behalf of Starfighters Space, Inc.
Companies mentioned in this commentary include: Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE American: FJET), Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG), Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR), Sidus Space, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIDU).
Key Takeaways:
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Starfighters Space (NYSE American: FJET) is joining C-STARS, a proposed NSF Industry–University Cooperative Research Center focused on biotechnology, advanced materials, electronics, and in-space manufacturing.
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The partnership plugs Starfighters’ Kennedy Space Center-based F-104 fleet directly into a university-industry research ecosystem spanning the University of Florida, Florida Tech, Florida A&M, and Embry-Riddle.
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In-space manufacturing is projected to grow from roughly $4.6 billion in 2030 to $62.8 billion by 2040 — a category being built, in part, right on Florida’s Space Coast.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., April 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — USA News Group News Commentary — Florida’s Space Coast has always been America’s launchpad. What it’s becoming now is something different: a research supercluster where universities, commercial operators, and federal agencies work side by side to turn microgravity, advanced materials, and in-space biotech from lab experiments into actual products.
The in-space manufacturing market alone is projected to grow from roughly $4.6 billion in 2030 to $62.8 billion by 2040, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 30%, according to a November 2023 MarketsandMarkets report.[1] A separate Allied Market Research analysis places the broader in-space manufacturing, servicing, and transportation market at $21.3 billion in 2030, expanding to $135.3 billion by 2040.[2]
Driving that growth is a rapidly maturing commercial ecosystem, and one of the clearest signs of that maturation is the Center for Science, Technology, and Advanced Research in Space (C-STARS) — a proposed National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry–University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) led by the University of Florida, with partner sites at Florida Tech, Florida A&M, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.[3]
And this week, one of the Space Coast’s more distinctive commercial operators just officially plugged in.
Starfighters Space (NYSE American: FJET) announced its intent to join C-STARS as a full member should the consortium secure NSF funding, committing $50,000 annually to the initiative alongside an additional contribution regardless of the award outcome. The company operates the world’s fastest fleet of supersonic aircraft — a stable of modified F-104s flying out of the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center — capable of sustained Mach 2+ flight and configurable as a first-stage lifting platform for payloads heading to space.
The fit is almost too clean. C-STARS is targeting research areas that include biotechnology, advanced materials, electronics, and in-space manufacturing. Starfighters provides a flight platform that can simulate launch profiles, support zero-gravity and sensor testing, and carry payloads up to 45,000 feet for air launch to space. In other words: a flexible, rapidly reusable testbed that sits between a laboratory bench and an orbital experiment.
“Starfighters was built to enable faster, more flexible access to space, and C-STARS allows us to extend that platform directly into the research and manufacturing domain,” said Tim Franta, Chief Executive Officer of Starfighters Space, in the company’s announcement. “By working alongside leading universities and government partners, we can help accelerate how new technologies are developed, tested, and ultimately deployed.”
The initiative is led academically by Dr. Siobhan Malany, C-STARS Center Director and associate professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, with Dr. Jamie Foster serving as UF Site Director. Foster is also an Assistant Director of the University of Florida Astraeus Space Institute. Per the C-STARS announcement, the consortium is working to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial deployment — particularly in biomanufacturing, where the Florida universities have identified six intersecting research areas including cell and tissue tools, bioenergy systems, advanced material electronics, AI and machine learning, lab-on-a-chip systems, and recycling and sustainability.[4]
What makes this announcement particularly relevant from an investor standpoint is the broader context: Florida hosts more than 17,000 space-related companies, and nearly 70% of all U.S. orbital launches last year occurred at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral.[5] This is where the economics of space are being rewritten.
For Starfighters, C-STARS provides access to specialized research facilities, collaborative funding opportunities, and a network of academic and government partners — while also supporting joint initiatives aligned with NASA and broader commercial space priorities. Management noted the partnership is expected to help reduce development risk and cost through shared infrastructure and coordinated research efforts.
More than access — a seat at the table
The C-STARS structure is important. IUCRCs are NSF-backed consortia that pair federal seed funding with industry membership fees to sustain long-duration research programs. Membership typically grants access to research output, early-stage IP, and direct collaboration with graduate-level researchers.
Jamie Foster summarized the workforce angle in the company’s announcement: “One of our biggest commitments through C-STARS is hands-on workforce development programs in the rapidly emerging areas of space biomanufacturing. From research experiences to internships with industry, we are working to develop talent pathways that enable students from many backgrounds to become the innovators, builders and leaders of the new space sector.”
For an operator like Starfighters, that’s a direct pipeline into the next generation of aerospace engineers, biomanufacturing specialists, and mission planners — at a time when the broader space technology market is projected to reach $769.7 billion by 2030, up from $466.1 billion in 2024, according to Grand View Research.[6]
Other public-market operators building out the in-space research stack
Starfighters isn’t the only public-market name building infrastructure around the research and manufacturing thesis. Several others are worth tracking alongside FJET for investors looking at this thematic.
Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW) is arguably the clearest pure-play on in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing. On March 11, 2026, the company announced that NASA had awarded it an additional $4 million to support new drug development investigations aboard the International Space Station using its Pharmaceutical In-space Laboratory (PIL-BOX) technology, expanding an existing task order under a $25 million, five-year IDIQ contract through NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) program.[7]
Per the announcement, Redwire’s President of Space, Mike Gold, noted that NASA and the InSPA program are functioning as a catalyst for new public and private sector capabilities in space-based drug development. With 43 PIL-BOX units flown to date, the company has supported investigations from partners including Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, ExesaLibero Pharma, Purdue University, and Butler University — the exact kind of university-industry crossover that C-STARS is designed to scale up at the Florida level.
Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG), the lead developer of the planned Starlab commercial space station, represents the “where does this all go after the ISS retires” piece of the puzzle. On April 15, 2026, the company announced it had signed an order with NASA for the seventh Private Astronaut Mission to the International Space Station — called VOYG-1 — targeting launch no earlier than 2028.[8]
Starlab itself, a joint venture among Voyager, Airbus, Mitsubishi Corporation, MDA Space, Palantir Technologies, and Space Applications Services, completed its Commercial Critical Design Review with NASA in February 2026, according to the Starlab project summary.[9] Mitsubishi Corporation also joined as a major customer and increased its equity investment earlier this year. For researchers at C-STARS planning their next decade of microgravity experiments, platforms like Starlab are the eventual destination.
Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR) is pushing the frontier further out. On March 24, 2026, the company announced NASA had awarded it a $180.4 million contract under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver seven science and technology payloads — including an Australian Space Agency lunar rover and hardware from Blue Origin’s Honeybee Robotics — to the Lunar South Pole Region.[10]
The IM-5 mission marks the company’s fifth CLPS task order and the first to require its larger cargo-class Nova-D lunar lander. Per the announcement, the mission will also leverage Intuitive Machines’ Space Data Network to provide persistent lunar connectivity. For C-STARS research thrusts targeting on-demand in-space manufacturing to support manned exploration of space, a reliable commercial lunar logistics layer is a prerequisite.
Sidus Space, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIDU) is perhaps the most geographically aligned of the group. Headquartered on Florida’s Space Coast and operating a 35,000-square-foot space manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing facility, Sidus builds and operates its own LizzieSat satellite platform — a hybrid 3D-printed, AI-enabled modular bus — and provides satellite-as-a-service to government, defense, intelligence, and commercial customers.[11]
On April 15, 2026, the company announced the expansion of its existing agreement with Lonestar Data Holdings to build and deliver an additional StarVault orbital data storage payload, with the first payload scheduled to launch no earlier than fall 2026 aboard LizzieSat-4.[12] Sidus is building exactly the kind of local manufacturing and integration capability that the C-STARS initiative is designed to scale across the region.
The bigger picture
What ties these names together isn’t just sector overlap — it’s the underlying transition from “access to space” to “operations in space.” The commercial space economy is professionalizing. Launch cadence is becoming routine. Universities and federal agencies are building out long-duration research programs alongside commercial operators. And the Space Coast, increasingly, is where the handoff is happening.
Starfighters Space sits in an unusual position in this ecosystem. It’s not a launch vehicle provider, not a satellite manufacturer, and not a pharmaceutical R&D company. But its high-performance flight platform — operating from the same runway that NASA’s Space Shuttle used to land on — can play a role across multiple segments: payload development, astronaut training, hypersonic testing, and now, through C-STARS, applied university research.
For investors tracking the commercial space thesis into the back half of 2026, the FJET-C-STARS announcement is a small signal with outsized implications. It reinforces that the next phase of the space economy won’t be built by a single operator — it’ll be built by a dense network of commercial operators, academic institutions, and federal agencies, all working in close proximity on Florida’s coast.
CONTINUED…
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Article Sources:
[1] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/in-space-manufacturing-market-worth-62-8-billion-by-2040—exclusive-report-by-marketsandmarkets-301982796.html
[2] https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/in-space-manufacturing-servicing-and-transportation-market-A10134
[3] https://iucrc.nsf.gov/centers/center-for-science-technology-and-advanced-research-in-space-c-stars/
[4] https://news.fit.edu/academics-research/florida-universities-launch-joint-effort-to-boost-space-manufacturing/
[5] https://www.daytonatimes.com/community/embry-riddle-partners-with-florida-universities-to-boost-space-manufacturing/article_b6e30ef6-5024-11ef-99d8-43863c1d11a7.html
[6] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/space-technology-market-report
[7] https://rdw.com/newsroom/nasa-awards-redwire-4-million-in-additional-funding-to-support-trailblazing-drug-development-in-microgravity/
[8] https://investors.voyagertechnologies.com/news/news-details/2026/Voyager-Selected-by-NASA-for-Seventh-Private-Astronaut-Mission/default.aspx
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlab_(space_station)
[10] https://investors.intuitivemachines.com/news-releases/news-release-details/intuitive-machines-expands-lunar-surface-operations-1804-million
[11] https://investors.sidusspace.com/
[12] https://investors.sidusspace.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/279/sidus-space-expands-existing-agreement-with-lonestar-da
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