Progress update! Astronauts have begun the liquid crystal research mission for Thailand’s TLC project aboard the International Space Station.
12/19/20253 min read
The long-awaited day has arrived: the Thai “TLC” (Thailand Liquid Crystals in Space) payload—developed by Thai researchers for liquid crystal experiments in space—has been installed to begin operations by NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. The installation took place on 1 December 2568 (1 December 2025) at 9:30 a.m. Texas time. During the operation, Mike Fincke installed the TLC payload into the KERMIT microscope (KEyence Research Microscope Testbed) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and replaced the microscope’s filter with the TLC project filter that was launched with the payload.
This important mission is being carried out together with the TLC research team led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nattaporn Chattam (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University). The project studies thin-film liquid crystals under microgravity, with a total of 120 hours of space-based experiments, conducted from 1 December 2568 to 22 December 2568 (1–22 December 2025).
Each morning, astronauts must install the payload and initiate the day’s experiment for the research team. The experiments are operated remotely by the Thai research team from the Voyager Technologies payload control room in Houston, Texas, while the KERMIT microscope is operated by the control room of Bioserve Space Technologies in Boulder, Colorado. During the experiment campaign, astronauts also take turns changing the KERMIT microscope filters to the appropriate TLC filters for each experiment type as designed.
The astronauts overseeing TLC experiments include a total of five crew members:
Commander Mike Fincke (NASA)
Zena Cardman (NASA)
Kimiya Yui (JAXA)
Chris Williams (NASA)
Jonny Kim (NASA)
TLC’s experimental objective is to study defects (defect structures) in thin-film liquid crystals, through three distinct sub-experiments:
Experiment 1: Thin-film liquid crystals under an environment with vapor-pressure differences
Experiment 2: Thin-film liquid crystals under air shear
Experiment 3: Thin-film liquid crystals under an environment with temperature (thermal) differences
The experiment team consists of:
Principal Investigator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nattaporn Chattam
Deputy Principal Investigator: Asst. Prof. Dr. Apichart Phattanaphokhrattana
Mr. Wutthiphan Sathiapaisal — Software engineer and Master’s student
Mr. Jaturong Chanruea — Electrical engineer
Mr. Teerathat Chomchok — PhD student, responsible for Experiment 1
Ms. Jutarat Kaewthong — Researcher, responsible for Experiment 2
Mr. Noppadon Saniwong na Ayutthaya — Master’s student, responsible for Experiment 3
Overall, TLC’s ISS experiment campaign totals 120 hours, running from 1 December 2568 to 22 December 2568 (1–22 December 2025).
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nattaporn Chattam, the principal investigator, revealed that the TLC payload took a total of two years to develop. The project’s implementation partner is Voyager Technologies, and the Mission Manager is Mr. Marcello Corporicci, together with a team of engineers from Voyager Technologies who supervised the payload development to ensure it met NASA standards. The payload also had to pass safety reviews by NASA committees through four phases before it could be certified for launch to the International Space Station (ISS).
“To have the payload in space and able to run different experiments—speaking as a researcher and as a team—we feel extremely proud that it is operating exactly as designed. We’re happy that after enduring the intense vibrations of the rocket launch to the station, it can still be used as planned. This shows that the work of Thai researchers meets international space standards. What I want to tell Thai people is that Thai capability can compete on the world stage without fear. If we put in full effort and determination, we can reach our goals—we can definitely reach space.”
Additionally, on 16 September 2568 (16 September 2025), the TLC (Thailand Liquid Crystals in Space) payload—an experiment on liquid crystals aboard the ISS developed by Thai researchers—was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA at 05:11 a.m. Thailand time. This mission was part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program. The TLC payload was loaded aboard Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, flight NG-23, and was launched to the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The Thailand Liquid Crystals in Space project received research funding for payload development and testing from the Program Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation (PMU-B) under Thailand’s Office of National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council (NXPO / “สกสว.” as cited). Meanwhile, the cost of sending the payload to space and operating the in-orbit experiment with NASA astronauts was supported by the U.S. ISS National Laboratory and NASA, valued at more than 500 million baht.
The goal of conducting liquid crystal experiments in space is to enable more advanced Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology than what is currently used. LCDs are widely used as mobile phone screens across all segments of Thailand’s population. The LCD display manufacturing industry today is valued at roughly USD 150 billion per year, with projections to grow to about USD 1.4 trillion by 2572 (2029). Because experiments in space remove the influence of Earth’s gravity, they can significantly reduce defects within liquid crystals. As a result, liquid crystals formed in space can respond to electric fields better than those produced on Earth.