Cape Canaveral, Florida – The Falcon 9 rocket has been launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 16, 2026, 05:05 AM Thailand time (May 15, 2026 18:05 PM EST). The mission is the routine resupply mission to the International Space Station, among scientific experiments from international agencies is Thailand’s first medical remote laboratory in orbit, TIGERS-X or Thailand Innovative G-force varied Emulsification Research for Space Exploration.
The 20 x 20 x 10 centimeters experiment cube has been delivered to Netherlands for Space Applications Services, the operator of ICE Cubes facility (ICF) onboard the station back in April. After the delivery, the payload went through final tests and certified for the cargo flight and for the science operation aboard the orbiting laboratory. Later, the experiment has been packed and shipped to Space Station Processing Facility in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and later loaded on to SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft. The launch took place on time without any delay.
Dragon will continue its approximately 36-hour journey to the International Space Station and is scheduled to dock on Thursday, May 17, 2026, at approximately 18:00 PM Thailand time (7:00 AM EST)
Space Application Services confirmed with the researcher team that the experiment will be loaded out of Dragon and will be installed on to the ICE Cubes facility which is a plug-and-play experiment platform in the European Space Agency’s Columbus module and will starts to operate. CRS-34 has a short docking period and is scheduled to return to earth mid June with TIGERS-X is set to return in the same mission.
TIGERS-X mission is to study fluid behavior and emulsion mixing under microgravity conditions using the process of “Static Mixing” in Lab-on-a-Chip. Researcher will conduct every operation from ground station in Bangkok. The data obtained from this experiment will serve as an crucial fundermantal science for further research in fluid science, which will lead to applications in the medical and industrial on Earth, as well as the development of technology to support life for long-term space exploration in the future.
Falcon 9 Rocket and Dragon spacecraft flying to the International Space Station Credit: Panyapiwat Institute of Management
The TIGERS-X project is led by Princess Srisavangavadhana College of Medicine, Chulabhorn Royal Academy, in collaboration with Panyapiwat Institute of Management, the Thai Microelectronics Center under the National Science and Technology Development Agency, the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, the European Space Agency, and Space Applications Services. The project is supported by research funding from the Thailand Science Research and Innovation Fund under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation.
More information about the project is available on the official website.
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