Redcliffe Labs and Skyroot Aerospace
Redcliffe Labs and Skyroot Aerospace have joined hands to explore how diagnostic technologies perform in Low Earth Orbit, bringing together India’s diagnostics and private space capabilities to investigate new possibilities for healthcare innovation.
Diagnostics are traditionally developed and evaluated in controlled laboratory environments. Space, however, presents a very different set of conditions, making it an unconventional but valuable environment to understand how diagnostic technologies respond to extreme conditions.
At this intersection of healthcare, technology, and space science, Redcliffe Labs and Skyroot Aerospace are collaborating to explore the future of diagnostics in space, while also studying how the learnings could contribute to more resilient diagnostic solutions on Earth.
The collaboration will begin with DRIFT-1, which will place Redcliffe Labs’ dry diagnostic reagents in Low Earth Orbit for 90 days, alongside an identical ground control.
By comparing the space-exposed reagents with their ground-based counterparts, the study will help establish how the space environment affects reagent stability and performance. The mission is also expected to generate a flight-heritage dataset for the technology, creating a foundation for further research.
Bringing Diagnostics and Space Technology Together
The collaboration brings together two distinctly Indian capabilities, diagnostic science and space technology, with a common objective of exploring how technology can perform beyond conventional environments.
For Redcliffe Labs, the initiative is not simply about taking diagnostics to space. It is about using one of the most demanding environments available to understand how diagnostic technologies can become more resilient and adaptable.
The research could have applications across space-enabled diagnostics, astronaut health, life sciences and microgravity research, while also opening possibilities for future point-of-care diagnostic solutions for human spaceflight missions such as Gaganyaan and the Bharatiya Antariksh Station.
More importantly, the learnings from space could have relevance on Earth, particularly in environments where conventional healthcare infrastructure or cold-chain availability is limited.
Dheeraj Jain, Chairman & Co-Founder, Redcliffe Labs, said, “The most transformative breakthroughs often happen at the intersection of disciplines that rarely come together. By bringing together Redcliffe Labs' expertise in diagnostics and Skyroot Aerospace's leadership in space technology, we are opening a new frontier for scientific research and innovation. More importantly, this partnership reflects the growing confidence that India's scientific and innovation ecosystem can bring together diverse capabilities to solve complex global challenges.”
The collaboration reflects this very intersection—bringing together Redcliffe Labs’ understanding of diagnostic science with Skyroot Aerospace’s capabilities in space technology to explore a use case with potential implications for both space and terrestrial healthcare.
DRIFT-1: Studying Diagnostic Reagents in Orbit
The first step in this collaboration is DRIFT-1, which will carry Redcliffe Labs' dry diagnostic reagents into Low Earth Orbit for 90 days.
An identical ground control will be maintained to enable a direct comparison between the reagents exposed to the space environment and those kept under controlled conditions on Earth.
The resulting data will help researchers understand changes in reagent stability and performance and establish how the technology responds to the conditions encountered in orbit.
This initial study could provide a foundation for further exploration of diagnostic technologies for space missions and other demanding environments.
What Space Can Teach Us About Diagnostics on Earth
The extreme conditions of space can offer a unique testing environment for technologies that need to function reliably with limited infrastructure.
For Redcliffe Labs, the potential value of the research lies in taking these learnings back to Earth.
The data generated through DRIFT-1 could help inform the development of more resilient diagnostic technologies for settings where conventional infrastructure or cold-chain availability may be limited. Such applications could be relevant across challenging and resource-constrained environments where reliable diagnostics are essential.
This makes the collaboration relevant beyond space exploration—it is an opportunity to understand how diagnostics can be designed to perform reliably under conditions very different from those of a conventional laboratory.
Taking Diagnostic Innovation Beyond the Conventional Laboratory
For Aditya Kandoi, Founder & CEO, Redcliffe Labs, space represents an extraordinary environment to test the resilience of diagnostic technologies and explore how those learnings can translate into healthcare applications on Earth.
“Space is one of the most demanding environments in which to test any technology, making it an extraordinary laboratory for innovation in diagnostics. Through this collaboration, we are taking our scientific expertise beyond the conventional laboratory to understand how our diagnostic technologies perform in orbit, with the ambition of bringing those learnings back to Earth. If we can build diagnostics that withstand the rigours of space, we can create more resilient technologies that improve access to reliable healthcare in some of the most challenging environments on Earth.”
The collaboration is part of Redcliffe Labs’ broader focus on combining diagnostics, technology and scientific research to explore new approaches to healthcare. As the company expands its focus beyond diagnostics services into advanced R&D and life sciences innovation, initiatives such as DRIFT-1 create opportunities to investigate technologies that could shape the future of healthcare.
Enabling New Possibilities in Space
The collaboration also aligns with Skyroot Aerospace’s vision of enabling a wider range of applications through India’s growing private space ecosystem.
Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-Founder & CEO, Skyroot Aerospace, said, “A diagnostics leader taking its expertise to orbit is exactly the kind of use case we want to open up by opening space for all. Skyroot’s partnership with Redcliffe Labs is a first step towards keeping astronauts healthier in orbit.”
As human spaceflight missions become increasingly ambitious, technologies that can support health monitoring and diagnostics in orbit could become an important part of the space ecosystem.
DRIFT-1 represents an early step in exploring that possibility.
A Collaboration With Possibilities Beyond the First Mission
The 90-day DRIFT-1 mission will provide the initial data needed to understand how Redcliffe Labs’ diagnostic reagents respond to the space environment.
The learnings could subsequently support research across space-enabled diagnostics, astronaut health, life sciences and microgravity, while informing the development of technologies that can operate in challenging environments on Earth.
For Redcliffe Labs and Skyroot Aerospace, the collaboration marks the beginning of an exploration at the intersection of healthcare, diagnostics, space technology and scientific research, with the potential to create innovations that travel from Earth to space, and bring valuable learnings back from space to Earth.
Ultimately, the initiative reflects a simple but ambitious idea: the future of healthcare innovation may come from places and disciplines that have traditionally remained far apart.
