Paragon Space Development Corporation and Redwire announced a nonbinding memorandum of understanding on November 12, 2026, to jointly develop and market integrated life-support systems for orbital and lunar habitats. The planned offering combines water recovery, waste handling and cabin-atmosphere equipment.
The companies intend to pursue NASA, international space agency and commercial station customers. They plan to examine both equipment sales and leasing arrangements, with program-specific terms established through separate definitive agreements.
Redwire’s proposed responsibilities include waste and urine capture, electrochemical urine stabilization, drinking-water quality monitoring and biological water treatment. Paragon would handle wastewater processing, water recovery, carbon-dioxide removal, oxygen generation and trace-contaminant control, together with temperature, humidity, pressure and fire-protection functions.
Connecting Air, Water and Waste Processing
Environmental control and life support systems maintain the conditions in which a crew can live inside a spacecraft. Air revitalization removes substances that accumulate in a sealed cabin. Water processing recovers usable water from waste streams. Oxygen generation replenishes the atmosphere as the crew breathes.
NASA’s life-support system description explains how those functions interact on the International Space Station. Water recovered from urine is combined with other wastewater and passed through filtration and catalytic treatment. Sensors check its quality, and unsuitable water is processed again.
Cabin humidity is another water source. Moisture removed from the atmosphere can join the recovery stream instead of being discarded. This links atmospheric control with water supply.
The station’s oxygen-generation equipment uses electricity to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen enters the cabin, and hydrogen can feed a separate process that reacts with carbon dioxide to produce water and methane.
Carbon-dioxide removal performs a different task from oxygen generation. Removing the gas exhaled by the crew controls its concentration in the cabin. Supplying oxygen replaces what the crew consumes. A functioning atmosphere-management system coordinates both processes.
These connections explain the companies’ proposed integration: equipment handling one waste stream supplies material to another process, and monitoring determines whether recovered material is suitable for its next use.
An Offering for Habitat Operators
A habitat operator purchases more than individual filters or processors when it selects a life-support system. Equipment interfaces, controls and maintenance arrangements determine how the separate functions operate together throughout a mission.
The proposed Paragon–Redwire package groups those functions within a shared development and marketing effort. Its intended scope includes development, manufacturing, flight qualification and long-term mission support.
Paragon identifies air and water recovery equipment on the International Space Station and humidity-control hardware on Boeing’s Starliner among its existing products. The companies will use separate agreements to define the particular programs and commercial terms pursued under the memorandum.
