Varda Space Industries

Varda Space Industries is a privately held American space research company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in November 2020, the company designs, builds, and flies spacecraft that manufacture materials in microgravity. The company targets in-space manufacturing of materials that are difficult to produce in Earth's gravity, and brings those materials 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.

History
Varda Space was founded in November 2020 by Will Bruey, Delian Asparouhov, and Daniel Marshall. 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 material in microgavity, 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.

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. In October 2021, Varda selected SpaceX as a launch provider for the first four launches.

Varda Space launched its first 300 kg 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. 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 licence 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. Varda subsequently started exploring options to direct capsule reentry to the Koonnibba Test Range in Australia. However, on February 14, 2024, Varda was successfully granted a re-entry licence by the FAA, and Winnebago-1 reentered on US soil on February 21, 2024 at 21:40 UTC.