• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Drug Produced In Space By California-Based Startup Has Safely Landed Back On Earth

February 25, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

The California-based startup Varda Space Industries made history earlier this week after it successfully returned samples of a drug it made in orbit.

After months of setbacks where the company’s in-space manufacturing capsule was held in orbit due to re-entry denial, the re-entry capsule safely touched down in the Utah desert on Wednesday, February 21.

Advertisement

Back in June 2023, Varda Space Industries announced the successful production the drug in what was the world’s first mini-space factory. This drug-making mission was sent on its ride into the atmosphere by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which lifted off on 12 June. The drug-making process was then conducted in the W-Series 1 satellite, which was attached to the Rocket Lab’s orbital Photon platform.

The drug-making process lasted about 27 hours and finished on June 30.

During its operations, the mini-factory managed to produce crystals of ritonavir, a protease inhibitor used for the treatment of HIV/Aids.

You might be wondering why they needed to produce this drug in space, which seems like a lot of effort, but there is a good reason. The loss of gravity is key here. In space environments, the company can promote the formation of higher-quality protein crystal structures at a faster pace than on Earth.

Advertisement

After their experiment, a data downlink from the satellite confirmed it had been successful.

At the time, the capsule was expected to land back in July 2023, but the US Federal Aviation Administration (FFA) denied its re-entry. So there it stayed, stuck in space until this week.

ⓘ IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.

The re-entry capsule, designed by Rocket Lab, landed at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) at Hill Air Force Base, around 80 miles (128.74 KM) west of Salt Lake City.

Advertisement

Once Varda recovered the capsule, which landed perfectly safely, the company shipped it back to its facilities in Los Angeles for further analysis.

“Additional, data collected throughout the entirety of the capsule’s flight – including a portion where we reached hypersonic speeds – will be shared with the Air Force and NASA under a contract Varda has with those agencies”, the company explained in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan lands $120M from Apis Partners, DisrupTech and others
  2. Denmark needs more wind, solar to hit emissions target, lobby says
  3. Grab to take majority stake in Indonesia e-wallet OVO
  4. Innovative Floating Wind Turbine Set To Begin Testing On Norway’s Coast

Source Link: Drug Produced In Space By California-Based Startup Has Safely Landed Back On Earth

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • World’s Oldest Pots: 20,000-Year-Old Vessels May Have Been Used For Cooking Clams Or Brewing Beer
  • “The Body Is Slowly And Continuously Heated”: 14,000-Year-Old Smoked Mummies Are World’s Oldest
  • Pizza Slices, Polaroid Pictures, And Over 300 Hats: What’s Left Behind In Yellowstone’s Hydrothermal Areas?
  • The Mathematical Paradox That Lets You Create Something From Nothing
  • Ancient Asteroid Ripped Apart In Collision Had Flowing Water
  • Flying Foxes Include The World’s Biggest Bat And The Largest Mammal Capable Of True Flight
  • NASA Responds To Claims That Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is An Advanced Alien Spacecraft
  • Millions Of Tons Of Gold Are In Earth’s Oceans, Potentially Worth Over $2 Quadrillion
  • The Race Back To The Moon: US Vs China, Will What Happens Next Change The Future?
  • NOAA Issues G3 Geomagnetic Storm Warning As 500,000 Kilometer Hole Sends Solar Wind At Earth
  • Lasting 776 Days, This Is The Longest Case Of COVID-19 Ever Recorded
  • Living Cement: The Microbes In Your Walls Could Power The Future
  • What Can Your Earwax Reveal About Your Health?
  • Ever Seen A Giraffe Use An Inhaler? Now You Can, And It’s Incredibly Wholesome
  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version