Varda Now Runs Three Orbital Drug Factories as Space Manufacturing Scales

Three washing machine-sized spacecraft now orbit Earth together for the first time in commercial space history. California-based Varda Space Industries launched two of them on 1 October and a third on 20 October, riding the same model of rocket into orbit. One capsule is growing tiny crystals of a potential cancer drug in weightlessness. The other two are testing heat protection materials and navigation systems for hypersonic re-entry through the atmosphere.

Together, the capsules mark a step toward what Varda's founders hope becomes a real industry: manufacturing drugs and materials in space.

"We're the first company in human history to launch multiple commercial re-entry vehicles simultaneously, and as the frequency of launches increases, the once 'crazy future' of manufacturing products in space is becoming more and more certain," said Will Bruey, Varda's chief executive.

Why grow drug crystals in orbit?

The answer is microgravity. On Earth, gravity pulls particles suspended in liquids downward, and density differences create currents inside the liquid. Both effects disturb crystal growth.

"If you are able to remove those effects, you can make crystals grow in a much more ordered sort of way," said Dr Meganne Christian, mission manager for in-space manufacturing at the UK-based Satellite Applications Catapult.

The size, shape and arrangement of drug crystals determine how easily a medicine dissolves, how stable it stays and how doctors can administer it. In some cases, orbit-grown crystals could let drugs that today require intravenous infusions become simple injections. Semiconductors, used in everything from smartphones to electric vehicles, could also benefit: microgravity and the absence of air could yield purer crystals with fewer defects.

"Personally, I would really love to try and make graphene in microgravity," said Christian. "Theoretically, it is this incredible material, but in practice you get a whole lot of defects in the crystals. It's a similar story for semiconductors. If you can reduce the number of defects, you can get a much higher-performing material."

What happens when the ISS retires?

Scientists have run microgravity experiments for decades, mostly aboard the International Space Station. But the ISS serves as a "test kitchen" for ideas rather than a factory, and it is scheduled to retire around 2030.

"It wasn't necessarily designed with manufacturing in mind," said Dr Ryan Reeves, deputy chief scientist for the ISS National Laboratory.

Several companies are building commercial stations to replace it. Others are designing specialist laboratory equipment for them. UK-based BioOrbit recently sent a microwave-sized laboratory to the ISS as a step toward producing self-injected cancer drugs.

Crewed stations have a limit, though. For large-scale manufacturing, "you need to get humans out of the picture, because we're dirty, we cause vibrations, and we require a whole higher level of safety," said Christian.

How do Varda's autonomous factories work?

Varda's spacecraft, called free-flyers, hitch rides into orbit on SpaceX rockets. Each carries miniature laboratories that process materials without astronauts. When the work ends, a capsule separates, plunges through the atmosphere and parachutes to an uninhabited region of Earth.

Varda has already returned several capsules from orbit. It plans seven more missions in 2027 and ten in 2028.

Frequency matters as much as hardware. "If scientists have to wait 10 years between experiments or even a year, that really doesn't fit into the speed of modern drug development," said Michael Reilly, Varda's chief strategy officer.

Who else is building in orbit?

Cardiff-based Space Forge is pursuing a hybrid model. It wants to grow semiconductor crystals in orbit, return them to Earth and use them as templates for larger production runs — much like a sourdough starter. Its first spacecraft, ForgeStar-1, recently demonstrated parts of the process needed to make these semiconductor "seed wafers". It has not yet produced a finished material and returned it.

Andrew Bacon, Space Forge's co-founder and chief technology officer, said the company aims to demonstrate the full manufacturing-and-return process before 2030.

"Since we started in 2018, nobody was talking about it. Now a lot of companies [are] talking about it," Bacon said. "People are starting to take this market very seriously. It does feel like we're at the start of a new Industrial Revolution."

What could still stop the industry?

Falling launch costs and more frequent commercial rocket flights fuel the optimism. The economics remain unproven.

"It's not going to be commercially viable for every application," said Christian. "We have to identify those high-value use cases where it makes sense to do the work in microgravity."

Regulators are moving too. Later this year, the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is expected to publish a plan clarifying how existing medicines rules apply to drugs made in orbit.

The final hurdle is reliability. "To get something to a commercially viable point, it needs to be done again and again and again," said Christian. "That's what these capsules need to do. They need to demonstrate this repeat performance." Varda's launch cadence through 2028 is the industry's first real test of whether orbit can become a production line.