Starfighters Space has signed a memorandum of understanding with The Bionetics Corporation to support the integration and processing of a series of small pathfinder payloads for missions aboard the company’s F-104 Starfighters. Announced on September 2, 2026, the agreement calls for Bionetics to provide specialized services and facilities for small-payload captive-carry and future air-launch missions. The work is intended to help Starfighters determine the equipment, infrastructure, and processing requirements needed to support its developing Wind Tunnel in the Sky and STARLAUNCH programs. Under the memorandum, Bionetics will work with Starfighters to prepare several classes of small payloads. Services are expected to include pre- and post-flight assembly, testing, integration, and data retrieval using Bionetics’ laboratories, equipment, and personnel at the Space Life Sciences Lab near Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“Bionetics manages some world-class processing capabilities for NASA research payloads and spaceflight hardware, and their facilities are conveniently located alongside ours in the Space Life Sciences Lab at the Kennedy Space Center,” said Tim Franta, CEO of Starfighters Space. “Working with Bionetics, we will use these first payloads as pathfinders to determine the array of equipment and services required for future Wind Tunnel in the Sky and STARLAUNCH missions.”
The 104,000-square-foot Space Life Sciences Lab contains dozens of laboratories supporting NASA and commercial space activities, including microsatellite processing and spaceflight experiments. Starfighters and Bionetics both maintain operations within the facility, which also houses Space Florida, universities, and other aerospace organizations. The facility is located approximately nine miles from Starfighters’ aircraft hangar. The agreement represents another step in Starfighters’ effort to develop its fleet of Lockheed F-104 Starfighters as operational platforms for aerospace research, testing, and payload missions.
Based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with additional operations at Midland International Air and Space Port in Texas, Starfighters operates a fleet of flight-ready F-104s capable of sustained flight above Mach 2. The company has been developing the aircraft for roles extending beyond their original military mission, including research, development, test and evaluation work. Among those applications is Starfighters’ Wind Tunnel in the Sky concept, which uses the F-104 as a high-speed flight-test platform. The aircraft can carry experiments and test articles into actual supersonic flight conditions, providing researchers with an alternative or complement to conventional ground-based wind-tunnel testing.
Potential applications include testing hypersonic technologies, advanced materials, missile-defense systems, electronic systems, spaceflight hardware, and other aerospace technologies. The aircraft can also support microgravity research and specialized pilot training. Starfighters is also developing STARLAUNCH, an air-launch concept intended to use the F-104 as the first stage of a small-payload launch system. Under the concept, an F-104 would carry a launch vehicle to altitude and high speed before releasing it, allowing the rocket to begin its powered flight after already benefiting from the aircraft’s altitude and velocity.
The initial payloads processed with Bionetics will serve as pathfinders, allowing the two companies to establish procedures and identify the infrastructure required to support future captive-carry, flight-test, and air-launch operations. The F-104, originally developed by Lockheed under the direction of Clarence “Kelly” Johnson and the company’s Skunk Works, first flew in 1954. Although designed as a high-performance interceptor, its combination of speed, climb performance, and relatively small airframe has allowed surviving examples to find new roles as civilian research and test platforms decades after the type left frontline military service. For more information about Starfighters Space, visit https://starfightersspace.com/.
