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Varda Space Industries
Varda Space Industries is a privately held American space research company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in January 2021,[1] the company designs, builds, and flies spacecraft that process pharmaceuticals in microgravity. The company targets small molecule crystallization, which is difficult to produce in Earth's gravity, and brings those crystals back to Earth with their atmospheric reentry vehicle. Investors in the company include venture capitalists such as Khosla Ventures and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.[2] HistoryVarda Space was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov. Will Bruey is a former electrical engineer of SpaceX, and Delian Asparouhov is associated with Founders Fund. Varda Space Industries began designing their first generation of space vehicles in January 2021 to manufacture new materials in microgravity and send those materials back to Earth in a reentry capsule. Manufacturing materials in the microgravity environment, and absence of dust particles, is beneficial for certain pharmaceuticals, fiber optics, and computer chips. In July 2021, Varda Space received US$42 million in a funding round from various venture capitalists, after receiving US$9 million in an initial funding round in December 2020.[3] The company announced that it raised another US$90 million in April 2024.[4] In August 2021, Varda Space Industries announced it had signed a contract with Rocket Lab to acquire three Photon satellite buses, with an option to purchase a fourth, to carry out missions to build the space station. The first bus was delivered in Q2 2023.[5][6] In October 2021, Varda selected SpaceX as a launch provider for the first four launches.[6] Varda Space launched its first 300 kg (660 lb) spacecraft on Falcon 9's Transporter-8 mission in June 2023. Varda's first spacecraft is focused on demonstrating the ability to produce pharmaceuticals in microgravity. Returning the capsule to Earth was planned for mid-August 2023.[7] Varda Space launched the first vehicle with approval from both the FAA and SpaceX to launch with the understanding Varda, the FAA, and the landing site at UTTR would deliver a reentry license before the proposed reentry date. The first proposed reentry date was denied on September 6, 2023, due to issues between the FAA regulatory requirements and the landing site.[8] Varda subsequently started exploring options to direct capsule reentry to the Koonibba Test Range in Australia.[9] However, on February 14, 2024, Varda was successfully granted a re-entry license by the FAA, and Winnebago-1 reentered on US soil on February 21, 2024 at 21:40 UTC.[10] FacilitiesVarda has offices in Washington, D.C., and El Segundo, California. Its El Segundo production facility is where vehicles, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested.[11] Varda’s headquarters houses a pharmaceutical laboratory, as well as a hypergravity crystallization platform, a screening tool for the crystallization of small-molecule pharmaceuticals.[12][13] W-Series Re-Entry CapsuleVarda’s W-Series capsule is an autonomous free-flying microgravity formulation platform intended for terrestrial landing. The W-Series capsule reenters the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 18,000 miles per hour and reaches speeds above Mach 25.[14] The capsule touches down on land via a parachute. The W-Series capsules’ heatshields are made of C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), a thermal protection material produced by NASA Ames Research Center. The material was originally developed at Ames, and the reentry of W-1 marked the first time a NASA-manufactured C-PICA heat shield ever returned from space.[15] W-1Varda’s W-1 capsule was the first commercial spacecraft to land on a military test range, the first to land on US soil, and was also the first spacecraft approved to reenter under the FAA’s Part 450 license.[16][17] Varda demonstrated the pharmaceutical processing equipment inside W-1 by growing crystals of Form III of the antiretroviral drug ritonavir.[18] W-2The W-2 capsule will land at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia in late 2024.[19] See alsoReferences
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