This Week in Space 174: Gifts From Orbit

Date: August 22, 2025
Host(s): Rod Pyle, Tarek Malik
Guest: Lynn Harper, Lead for Strategic Integration, NASA’s In Space Production Applications (INSPA)

Overview

This episode, titled "Gifts from Orbit," explores the transformative benefits stemming from research and manufacturing aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Hosts Rod Pyle and Tarek Malik are joined by NASA’s Lynn Harper, who leads the In Space Production Applications (INSPA) program. Together, they delve into how the unique environment of microgravity is producing breakthroughs in medicine, semiconductors, and materials science—developments with billion-dollar implications and the potential to change (and save) countless lives on Earth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The INSPA Program and Its Mission

[15:31, 16:20]

• INSPA is NASA’s only program fully dedicated to leveraging space for direct, tangible benefits on Earth—particularly in medicine and industry.
• The program’s focus is on using microgravity to overcome terrestrial limitations—addressing real-world problems like disease treatment, materials performance, and technological innovation.

Lynn Harper [15:31]:

"NASA's In Space Production Application Program, known as INSPA, is the only program in NASA where the entire funding is to use space to benefit terrestrial applications."

2. The Big Breakthroughs: Mega-Spin Offs from Space

[16:29, 20:18]

• These are not just incremental improvements but potentially life-changing advances—such as growing new hearts, kidneys, and retinas, or developing better drugs for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other major diseases.
• Recent INSPA efforts (since 2019) have accelerated the translation from lab research to real-world application.

Rod Pyle [16:29]:

"I would call these mega spin offs… the kind of stuff we're going to be talking about today is life changing."

3. A Personal Path to Space—Lynn Harper’s Story

[17:28]

• Inspired as a child by Sputnik and encouraged by her father, Lynn followed a nontraditional route into space science, eventually combining her passion for biology and outreach via the Boy Scouts into a pivotal career at NASA.

Lynn Harper [17:28]:

"My father took me out at five years old in the middle of the night... He points across the lake... He says, 'that's the world changing.' And it was Sputnik."

4. Why Microgravity Makes a Difference

[22:51, 34:47]

• Gravity on Earth impedes the purity and uniformity required for many cutting-edge products, from pharmaceuticals (e.g., drug crystals) to semiconductors and fiber optics.
• Microgravity allows, for instance, the growth of more uniform drug crystals, enables 3D tissue engineering, and accelerates cell development in ways not possible on Earth.

Lynn Harper [22:51]:

"By 2019, Merck had found in one flight that they could change the formulation of their leading cancer drug to be much more effective... just by using the ISS to get uniform crystals."

5. Medical Marvels: Curing Cancer, Alzheimer's, and More

[24:05, 29:18, 31:20]

• Merck’s space-grown Keytruda (cancer drug) can now be delivered via injection instead of IV, saving 40% in costs and projected to generate $25 billion annually by 2030.
• 3D cell cultures in space are better models for human disease, accelerating drug testing (“30 years in 30 days”) and enabling genuinely new medical approaches.
• The implication: Just one such space-developed drug could repay the entire ISS investment in four years.

Tarek Malik [26:20]:

“We're talking about cancer medicine… This is the kind of science that your program and the folks you work with are working on that, like Rod was talking about. That's amazing.”

6. Industrial Spin-Offs: Semiconductors & Fiber Optics

[53:16, 58:39, 61:10]

• Semiconductors: Early microgravity results saw yields rise from 5% (Earth) to 90% (space)—with far superior device quality (“would have been considered a breakthrough even at 5% yield").
• Fiber Optics (Zblan): Flawless Photonics managed to surpass the Earth's best record in orbit—producing up to 700 meters per run, with fiber up to 10 times clearer.

Lynn Harper [54:12]:

“They got 90% yield of a fantastically better product.”

7. ISS as an Engine for Terrestrial Wealth & Health

[55:45, 65:58]

• Hosts and Lynn discuss the need for the ISS to continue operation beyond 2030 to maintain productivity and innovation. The call is for an expanded “space industrial research park”—with ISS at the hub and various commercial/free-flying modules or stations dedicated to different industries (e.g., heart tissue, semiconductors, Zblan).

Lynn Harper [55:45]:

“The purpose of a space mission is not to launch a rocket. It's to deliver people and equipment… for the purpose of discovery, development, and really making a better future.”

8. Opening the Field: Remote Manufacturing and Untapped U.S. Potential

[66:16, 68:19]

• Remote manufacturing is enabled: skilled individuals can contribute nationwide, not just in traditional “space states.”
• Discovery in microgravity is opening not just new scientific fields but new business and career opportunities everywhere—including unexpected states and communities.

Lynn Harper [66:16]:

“Right now we've been spending billions of dollars every year trying to see things that gravity will not let us see and do things that gravity will not let us do.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [21:27, Harper]:
  “The ISS changed everything. The space shuttle over 30 years only spent three and a half years in space. Over 25 years, the space station has been up 24/7... And lately over the past five years, the number of products and breakthroughs that they're achieving on a yearly basis are unmatched.”
• [29:18, Harper]:
  “They blew us all away in the results—they showed space was accelerating by 30 years in 30 days.”
• [43:32, Harper]:
  “I said, look, guys, I'm about to get up and say that microgravity processing can significantly benefit brain cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, blood cancer, metastatic cancer, Alzheimer's, als, Parkinson's… And I said, I don't want to overhype this. And somebody wrote in the chat, you're under hyping.”
• [65:58, Harper]:
  “So when you are going between the Earth and the moon, you are going through a really low G area with really high vacuum. And honestly that's going to make a lot of friends because you can up the material quality that you can even get in LEO…”

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |---------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Episode preview: New moon around Uranus, Starship flight update, ISS technology spin-offs | | 03:24 | Headline news: NASA admin pivots to space vs. Earth science; policy implications | | 06:37 | Discovery of a new moon around Uranus (now 29 known moons) | | 08:10 | SpaceX Starship Flight 10 launch preview—hopes and history of recent failures | | 10:32 | Space Force’s X-37B secretive plane launches | | 14:29 | Introduction of Lynn Harper and INSPA | | 17:28 | Lynn Harper shares her journey into space science | | 22:51 | How gravity limits industry and why microgravity matters | | 24:05, 29:18 | Cancer and medical breakthroughs from ISS/INSPA | | 31:20 | Financial and medical impact of space-made Keytruda | | 33:05 | The required overlap between ISS and upcoming commercial stations (CLDs) | | 38:47 | Heart tissue/organoid growth in space—implications for regenerative medicine | | 42:40 | Why these breakthroughs are so underreported, even among insiders | | 50:55 | Human vs. robotic manufacturing in space; the role of robots as automation proceeds | | 53:16 | Semiconductors in space: yield and product quality leaps | | 58:39 | Zblan fiber optics: Earth vs. space production records | | 61:50 | Future vision: Growing ISS as an “industrial park” for specialized manufacturing | | 65:58 | Space manufacturing as a new economic driver—even outside traditional “space states” | | 66:16 | Remote manufacturing: National potential and leveling the playing field | | 69:31 | Call for more public awareness and engagement; where to track future INSPA/ISS breakthroughs| | 70:17 | Tarek Malik’s upcoming stories and where to find his work |

Takeaways & Final Thoughts

• The ISS, via programs like INSPA, is already paying dividends in ways that greatly exceed its cost—not just in knowledge, but in real, scalable applications in medicine, semiconductors, fiber optics, and more.
• Microgravity is uniquely enabling new frontiers—3D tissue, superior drugs, better chips, and materials with no equivalent on Earth.
• The “space station as cost center” narrative is outdated; it now makes sense to view platforms like the ISS as the world’s most unique R&D and manufacturing facility.
• As commercial space stations and infrastructure ramp up (the “CLDs”), overlap with the ISS is essential, not just for continuity but for scaling revolutionary discoveries into world-changing solutions.
• There are opportunities for the broader public and U.S. workforce—manufacturing and R&D in microgravity is opening the door for careers and business in all sorts of locations, not just traditional space sectors.
• Lynn Harper’s closing message: We are only beginning to realize what removing gravity as a constraint can do—a whole new industry is being born beyond Earth’s pull.

Resources for Further Information

• ISS National Lab: https://www.issnationallab.org
• INSPA Program (coming soon): NASA In Space Production Applications website
• Hosts:
  • Rod Pyle: pilebooks.com, aster magazine.com, nss.org
  • Tarek Malik: space.com, Twitter/X @TarekjMalik

For anyone interested in space, science, health, or the future of technology and industry, this is a can't-miss episode. The revolution borne from microgravity has only just begun—these are, truly, the “gifts from orbit.”