Case Study: The 1980s Electrophoresis Venture
What happened to the first serious attempt at commercial drug manufacturing in orbit, and what does it teach?
Chapter summary
in the early 1980s McDonnell Douglas, working with a Johnson & Johnson unit, flew a continuous-flow electrophoresis system on the Space Shuttle to purify biological products more efficiently than possible on Earth, aiming at a hormone for treating anaemia.
Key takeaways
- 1
The partners planned a dedicated orbital factory.
- 2
The venture ended after the 1986 Challenger accident grounded the Shuttle and, crucially, after advances in genetic engineering made it possible to produce the target product cheaply on Earth.
- 3
It is the clearest historical example of the two forces that still threaten in-space manufacturing: access risk and ground replication.
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Fifty Years of Trying: from Skylab to Capsules
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