Varda believes humanity's first space-made product will be a pharmaceutical. Today we announced a research collaboration with United Therapeutics. Together we will explore the use of microgravity to develop improved formulations of medicines for rare pulmonary disease aboard Varda’s orbital platform. Small molecule drugs will fly to low Earth orbit, form novel crystals in microgravity, and come home via our W-series reentry capsule. Through this collaboration we will pioneer pharmaceutical processing in space, to benefit people on Earth.

Last week, we announced a partnership with United Therapeutics that we believe will result in the first commercial products made in space. Read more from @techreview:

After nearly a full year in orbit, our W-4 demo mission has come to an end after performing a disposal burn. Cheers to a great vehicle and a great set of data. The W-5 and W-6 missions were even better thanks to what we learned from W-4.

W-6 is back. This flight pushed on two fronts: autonomous hypersonic navigation and next-generation thermal protection systems. High-cadence reentry missions in repeatable conditions.

At 10:43 PM Pacific time today, the W-6 vehicle executed its final deorbit maneuver and reentered the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds for its roughly 20-minute descent. We are excited to announce that our sixth mission is officially home. Great catch @SouthernLaunch. Expect photos soon.

Thanks for having us @BloombergTV

W-6 has reached sun synchronous orbit. Stay tuned, the interesting part happens on the way back.

W-6 is now in orbit, and the Varda team continues the steady march toward routine, autonomous hypersonic reentry. Funded through the @AFResearchLab, W-6 carries two types of payloads: an interior autonomous system will determine the vehicle’s position during the GPS blackout on reentry. On the exterior of the capsule, instrumented thermal protection material from @SandiaLabs, as well as “e-Char” heatshield tiles from @NASA will gather high-fidelity data under real reentry conditions. This is the new normal: Fly early, learn through real conditions, iterate quickly, and build the infrastructure for reliable return from LEO.

Front and center. Godspeed, W-6!

You know the drill. Watch Varda’s sixth mission launch on Transporter-16, live from SpaceX: spacex.com/launches/transpor…

Look who's home

Fly, burn, return.

The W-5 mission landed safely at the Koonibba Test Range operated by @SouthernLaunch. This is the first reentry of Varda’s next-generation satellite bus, which we designed specifically to meet the demands of both long-duration orbital pharmaceutical processing and reentry. The W-5 flight carried a payload for the U.S. Navy in partnership with @AFResearchLab and was also equipped with a heatshield made in Varda’s El Segundo headquarters from C-PICA, an ablative material that has been used on all the W-series capsules and was originally developed at @NASAAmes Research Center. Key highlights of the W-5 mission include: · End-to-End Autonomy: The mission was a successful demonstration of the Varda-built bus in executing orbital maneuvers, concluding in a precise deorbit burn. · High-Fidelity Recovery: Safe landing and rapid recovery of the customer payload for immediate post-flight analysis saves time and offers customers options for iterative development. · Hypersonic S&T: The unique aerothermal chemistry of the reentry environment is impossible to fully simulate on the ground, and flight testing is the best way to advance understanding of the reentry environment. W-5's success reinforces the advantage of building the entire integrated system in-house. By owning the spacecraft, the capsule, and the mission operations end-to-end, we can iterate faster, fly more often, and reliably bring complex manufacturing processes back to Earth.

"The future," "off-planet economy," and "space logistics" are just stories until they become launch schedules, heat shields, dirt from reentry ranges, and payload manifests.

Appreciate @DJSnM's deep dive into the science of making pharmaceuticals in orbit! This is a great introduction to what Varda does, how it works, and the ways it could benefit people on Earth.