Melagen Labs Secures $4.5M Public-Private Partnership with Taylor, Texas to Build State-of-the-Art Radiation and Space Testing Center
Testing Facility
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Press Release
Historic agreement establishes one of America's newest commercial radiation testing facilities, addressing a critical national infrastructure bottleneck for radiation testing.
TAYLOR, TEXAS — April 2026 — Melagen Labs today announced a $4.5 million Economic Development Performance Agreement with the Taylor Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) to establish a state-of-the-art Radiation Testing and Qualification Center in Taylor, Williamson County, Texas. The facility will be among the first privately operated, commercial-grade gamma irradiation facilities in Texas and one of the most significant additions to U.S. radiation testing infrastructure in years.
Construction begins in 2026, with testing operations targeted to start in 2027. This facility is the foundation for the full stack radiation shielding platform that Melagen Labs is building to serve the full breadth of America's aerospace, defense, and advanced electronics industries.
Why This Matters: A Critical Infrastructure Bottleneck
Radiation testing is a critical requirement for many advanced electronics program operating in space, defense, or high-reliability environments. Yet the United States faces a severe shortage of testing capacity, with wait times of several months at existing facilities, which delays missions, stalls programs, and forces companies to seek testing overseas.
A major National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study warned that the U.S. radiation testing system is fragile and "could easily suffer major strains if even a single major facility closes." The U.S. currently operates a limited number of commercial radiation testing facilities serving more than several hundreds of space and defense companies.
A 2025 analysis in SpaceNews called directly on Congress to establish public-private partnerships with commercial testing providers as the fastest path to closing this gap, and in turn, calling out the ability of private operators to "move much faster… at a fraction of the cost."
The new testing facility in Taylor is precisely addressing that gap, and it is being built now.
Who This Will Help Accelerate
The radiation testing bottleneck touches every frontier of American technology ambition. This facility will directly serve and accelerate:
NASA's Artemis Program and Lunar Infrastructure — Upcoming NASA missions require radiation-qualified electronics for deep-space and lunar surface environments. Domestic test access is essential to keeping those programs on schedule.
Orbital Data Centers and In-Space Computing — Orbital computing companies are racing to build compute infrastructure in orbit. Every processor, memory chip, and power system going to space requires radiation qualification. Our Taylor facility will be a critical enabler for this emerging industry.
Advanced Electronics and Semiconductor Development — Radiation-hardened microelectronics are explicitly classified as "critical to the nation's security and defense" in recent U.S. export-control rulemaking. Domestic testing infrastructure is a strategic asset for the companies developing next-generation chips and systems.
Defense, Space Force, and Government Programs — U.S. Space Force, Air Force, and DoD programs face mission delays waiting for test slots. The Taylor facility will include secure, SCIF-compatible testing environments to serve classified and defense programs at the speed those missions demand.
Commercial Satellite Constellation Operators — As satellite constellations scale toward tens of thousands of spacecraft, the demand for radiation-qualified COTS electronics is growing faster than current testing infrastructure can support.
Why America Is Falling Behind
The shortage of domestic radiation testing capacity is not isolated and sits at the center of a broader vulnerability in America's advanced technology supply chain. Radiation-hardened electronics programs face compounding pressures: at-capacity test infrastructure, a limited specialized workforce, and growing competition for limited capacity from both commercial and government customers.
Melagen Labs has briefed Congressional offices on these dynamics as a systemic risk to U.S. space and defense competitiveness. The Taylor testing facility is a direct response by being commercially led, locally supported, and built to the specifications the industry actually needs.
What We Are Building
The Taylor testing facility will deliver:
Co-60 TID Testing — Total Ionizing Dose qualification using panoramic irradiators, supporting device-level, board-level, and subsystem-level campaigns for aerospace, defense, semiconductor, and energy customers.
Proton SEE Testing — High-energy 200–230 MeV testing capabilities conducted in consolidated testing campaigns with partnered facilities in the nearby vicinity.
Electronics Characterization Laboratory — Pre- and post-irradiation electrical testing with automated test equipment, temperature-controlled fixtures, and multi-cycle qualification analysis.
Secure Data and Reporting Infrastructure — SCIFs, ITAR-aligned data handling, encrypted customer portals, and automated qualification reporting designed for DoD, Space Force, NASA, and export-controlled programs.
Space and Technology Innovation Space — The facility will be developed into a purpose-built deep-tech and aerospace ecosystem hub in the future, providing member companies with co-working spaces, shared lab infrastructure, and on-site radiation testing access.
Why Taylor, Texas
Taylor sits in Williamson County (the nation's 8th fastest growing county) at the center of Central Texas's technology expansion. Samsung's flagship semiconductor campus anchors the region. Austin's defense and space technology ecosystem lies 35 miles south. Yet despite this concentration of advanced technology, not a single commercial radiation testing facility has existed in the region — until now.
Taylor's decision to back this project as a public-private partnership of this kind reflects the city's recognition that the moment demands bold investment in nationally strategic infrastructure. The facility represents a shared conviction between Melagen Labs and the City of Taylor to closing America's radiation testing gap.
“We are excited to welcome Melagen to Taylor,” said Betty Day, Chairperson of the Taylor Economic Development Corporation. “This project puts Taylor, Texas on the aerospace and defense map. It is exciting to know that Taylor will play a role in future space exploration”
The Cislunar Group, a transatlantic market entry and expansion architecture firm specializing in aerospace and defense, led a multi-state site selection process for Melagen Labs across four states and multiple cities before identifying Taylor, Texas as the optimal location. Stephen McCall, Founder and Managing Director and former Head of Government Affairs at Firefly Aerospace, directed the full engagement — including economic development strategy, public-private partnership architecture, and government relations — from inception through board approval.
Built on Deep Radiation Expertise
Melagen Labs is building a full-stack radiation protection ecosystem for the aerospace and defense industries. Over the last 2 years, Melagen Labs developed their flagship offering is MLC1, a proprietary composite that is significantly lighter and more effective than traditional aluminum shielding, enabling commercial off-the-shelf electronics to operate reliably in the space radiation environment. MLC1 has been validated through ground testing and is currently being flight-tested aboard the International Space Station in a joint mission with Satlyt, where MLC1 is protecting a live COTS AI processor from real orbital radiation exposure.
That materials expertise, along with the deep physics, testing, and qualification knowledge built in developing MLC1, is what drives Melagen's expansion into radiation testing infrastructure. The company understands the problem from every angle: the environments electronics must survive, the testing methodologies required to qualify them, and the gaps in the current system that are holding the industry back.
The Taylor testing center is the ground-based anchor of the Melagen platform built to support every stage of a program's radiation challenge, from material design and shielding to testing and qualification.
Quotes from Leadership
"This facility is about more than testing. It's about building the infrastructure layer that enables the next generation of American space and defense programs. Taylor, Texas, gave us the partnership and the platform to move fast. We're building one of the most important pieces of national technology infrastructure to come online in years, which will enable commercial and defense partners to accelerate their development for lunar infrastructure, and this is just the beginning of the network we're building."
— Muhammad Hunain, Founder & CEO, Melagen Labs Corp.
[[QUOTE FROM BEN]]
— Ben White, President & CEO, Taylor Economic Development Corporation
Get Early Access — Pre-Book Your Testing Hours Now
The Taylor testing facility waitlist is now open. Commercial, defense, and government customers can register for early access and secure founder pricing on test hours ahead of the facility's opening.
Register for early access and pre-book testing hours.
About Melagen Labs Corp.
Melagen Labs Corp. is building the world’s first full-stack radiation shielding platform for next-gen space electronics and the orbital infrastructure economy. The company’s flagship offering is MLC1, a proprietary composite that is significantly lighter and more effective than traditional aluminum shielding, enabling commercial off-the-shelf electronics to operate reliably in the space radiation environment.
About Taylor Economic Development Corporation
TEDC is a Type A, 4A non-profit corporation founded by the Taylor voters in 1994. TEDC is funded by one-half percent of the annual sales tax from the City of Taylor and is a separate entity from the City of Taylor with a separate staff and budget. The organization is quasi-governmental, subject to open-records and open meetings laws with two exceptions for economic development and is treated by the State of Texas as a private, non-profit entity.
