When Will Bruey discusses the future, the projections are more immediate than many think. The CEO of Varda Space Industries forecasts that in 10 years, individuals could be present at landing spots witnessing several specialized spacecraft each night racing towards Earth akin to shooting stars, with each carrying pharmaceuticals produced in space. He claims that within 15 to 20 years, it will be less expensive to send a blue-collar worker to orbit for a month than to have them stay on Earth.

Bruey believes these predictions are plausible because he has witnessed ambitious business forecasts materialize in his time as an engineer at SpaceX.

“I recall the first rocket I was involved with at SpaceX was flight three of Falcon 9,” he mentioned at TechCrunch’s latest Disrupt event. The partially reusable, two-stage, medium-lift launch vehicle has since finished nearly 600 successful missions. “If someone had mentioned ‘reusable rockets’ and ‘[we’ll witness] as many [of these] flights as daily flights out of LAX,’ I would have thought, ‘Okay, [maybe in] 15 to 20 years,’ and this feels similarly futuristic.”

Varda has already demonstrated the essential idea. In February 2024, following an extensive regulatory journey, the company became the third corporate entity ever to retrieve something from orbit – crystals of ritonavir, an HIV medication – joining SpaceX and Boeing in that select group. It has conducted several missions since then.

The corporation returns its pharmaceuticals to Earth inside the W-1 capsule, a small, conical spacecraft measuring about 90 centimeters in diameter, 74 centimeters tall, and weighing less than 90 kilograms (roughly the equivalent of a large kitchen trash container). This week, the company launched its fifth capsule aboard a SpaceX ride-share mission, utilizing a spacecraft bus that provides power, communications, propulsion, and control during orbit.

So why create crystals in space? In microgravity, the typical forces that disrupt crystal formation on Earth – like sedimentation and gravity affecting growing crystals – essentially vanish. Varda posits that this allows for much tighter control over crystallization, enabling the formation of crystals with consistent sizes or even novel polymorphs (different structural forms of the same molecule). These advancements can lead to tangible benefits: enhanced stability, increased purity, and extended shelf life for pharmaceuticals.

The process is not rapid. Pharmaceutical production can take weeks or months in orbit. However, once completed, the capsule separates from the spacecraft bus and plummets back through Earth’s atmosphere at speeds exceeding 30,000 kilometers per hour, achieving velocities above Mach 25. A heat shield made of NASA-developed carbon ablator material safeguards the cargo inside, while a parachute ensures a gentle landing.

The actual business aspect is rather straightforward, Bruey pointed out. “Put space aside for a moment,” he said. “We just have this magical oven . . . where you can create formulations that you couldn’t otherwise.” Bruey clarified a common misunderstanding about Varda, stating that the company isn’t “in the space industry; we’re in-space industry,” he noted. Space is “merely another destination for shipping.”

It’s important to note: Varda is not on a quest to discover new drugs or develop new molecules. Its goal is to broaden the scope of what can be achieved with existing, approved pharmaceuticals.

This isn’t speculative science, either. Companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck have been conducting pharmaceutical crystallization studies on the International Space Station for years, verifying that the concept is effective. Varda asserts it is commercializing this by establishing the infrastructure to operate it continuously, consistently, and at a scale that could genuinely impact the pharmaceutical sector.

Regarding the timing, two significant changes have occurred. Firstly, space launches have become more accessible and predictable. “A decade ago, you needed to book a chartered flight. Getting to orbit felt like hitchhiking unless you were a primary mission payload,” Bruey clarified. “It remains costly today, but [it’s reliable, you can schedule a slot, and we [have] arranged launches years ahead.”

Secondly, complete space service companies like Rocket Lab began producing satellite buses available for purchase. Acquiring spacecraft from Rocket Lab and integrating its pharmaceutical production capsules with them represents a substantial breakthrough.

Nonetheless, only the highest-value goods are economically feasible. That’s why Varda initiated its focus on pharmaceuticals; a medication that can command thousands of dollars per dose can absorb transportation expenses. 

The “seven domino” theory

When Bruey speaks with lawmakers, which he mentions he frequently does nowadays, he presents what he refers to as the “seven domino theory.” 

Domino one: reusable rockets. Accomplished. Domino two: producing drugs in orbit and returning them. Domino three is significant: getting a medication into clinical trials. “This is notable because it signifies continuous launches.”

This illustrates where Varda’s business model fundamentally diverges from that of other space enterprises.

Consider how satellite companies operate. SiriusXM launches satellites for radio broadcasts. DirecTV deploys satellites for television transmission. Even Starlink, with its multitude of satellites, is fundamentally constructing a constellation – a network that, once established, doesn’t require ongoing launches to function. These businesses regard launching as a capital expense. They invest money to place hardware in orbit, and then it’s complete.

Varda operates differently. Every drug formulation necessitates manufacturing cycles. Manufacturing cycles necessitate launches. Increased demand for the medications results in more launches.

This is significant because it alters the economic landscape for launch service providers. Instead of offering a limited number of launches to build a constellation, they have a client with (theoretically) unlimited demand that expands with success. That kind of consistent, scalable demand aids in justifying the fixed costs associated with launch infrastructure and reduces per-launch prices.

Domino four initiates the feedback loop: as Varda expands, costs diminish, rendering the next tier of drugs economically feasible. An increase in drug offerings equates to greater scale, further lowering costs – a cycle Bruey claims will “drive launch costs into the ground.”

Varda’s commercial feasibility is yet to be proven, and no space-manufactured medications are currently available at pharmacies. However, the beneficial cycle that Bruey envisions will also benefit entities beyond Varda. Reduced launch costs enhance accessibility for other sectors, including semiconductors, fiber optics, and exotic materials – everything that gains from microgravity but can’t yet rationalize the cost.

Ultimately, Bruey tells his team that launch expenses will decline to the point where sending an employee to orbit for a month will become less expensive than creating additional automation.

“I envision ‘Jane’ travels to space for a month. It’ll be akin to [going to] an oil rig. She toils at the drug manufacturing facility for a month, returns, and [becomes] the first individual to go to space and back while generating more value than her travel cost.”

It is at that moment, Bruey says, when “the invisible hand of the free market economy elevates us off our home planet.”

The near-death experience

The journey towards those shooting star drug deliveries almost came to a halt before it really began, Bruey recounted to TechCrunch.

Varda launched W-1 in June 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission. The pharmaceutical manufacturing process within the capsule performed as intended, yielding crystals of Form III ritonavir, a specific crystalline formation of the drug that’s challenging to produce on Earth. The experiments were completed within weeks.

However, the capsule ended up just . . . remaining in orbit. For six months. The issue wasn’t technical, Bruey clarified; Varda struggled to obtain approval to return its W-1 capsule home.

The Utah Test and Training Range, where Varda sought to land, was established to “test weaponry and train fighters,” as Bruey described. Space pharmaceuticals didn’t fit that category, resulting in Varda not being prioritized. When higher-priority military missions required the range, they displaced Varda’s planned landing slots. Each delay rendered the company’s reentry license with the FAA invalid, necessitating a restart of the approval process.

“Eighty people in the office had devoted two and a half years of their lives to this project, and it was in orbit, but we were uncertain if it could return,” Bruey reminisced.

Outwardly, the situation seemed dire. To onlookers, it appeared that Varda had acted recklessly and launched without proper authorization. However, he explained that in reality, the FAA had permitted Varda to launch without a finalized reentry license as the agency wished to stimulate the emerging commercial reentry sector.

The FAA had granted Varda permission to launch while still working on a finalized reentry license, encouraging the nascent commercial reentry industry.

“They urged us to move forward with our launch, with the understanding that we would persist in coordinating that license, along with reentry timing with the range, while we were in orbit,” Bruey elucidated.

The actual dilemma was that this was the very first commercial land reentry ever attempted. There was no established protocol for the Utah range to cooperate with the FAA. Both organizations felt burdensome liability.

Varda examined every conceivable alternative. Water landing? The capsule doesn’t float; it would be lost. Australia? A possibility, and discussions were initiated. But Bruey indicated that he made a decisive move: no compromises.

“Either you must push the limits of regulation to create this future, or you don’t,” he asserted. “For Varda to succeed, we have to land on land consistently. So we just accepted it and said, ‘Let’s tackle this.”

While its inaugural mission was stranded in orbit, the company pressed on with production for the subsequent capsule. It continued to hire new talent.

In February 2024, eight months after launch, W-1 finally returned. It landed as intended at the Utah Test and Training Range, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to land on a military test range and the first to reenter U.S. soil under the FAA’s Part 450 licensing framework, which the agency introduced in 2021 to provide greater flexibility for commercial space missions.

Currently, Varda has landing sites in both the U.S. and Australia, and it is the first company to obtain an FAA Part 450 operator license allowing it to reenter the U.S. without the need for resubmitting complete safety documentation for each flight.

Additionally, Varda has developed a secondary business born out of necessity: hypersonic testing.

Few objects ever pass through the atmosphere at Mach 25. The conditions at those velocities are extreme and distinctive: temperatures soar into the thousands of degrees, forming a plasma sheath around a vehicle. The air itself undergoes chemical transformations as molecules are shattered and reformed. This environment cannot be replicated on Earth, even in the most sophisticated wind tunnels.

The Air Force and other defense organizations require testing for materials, sensors, navigation systems, and communications technology under authentic hypersonic conditions. Traditionally, this would entail dedicated test flights costing upwards of $100 million each, with considerable risk involved.

Varda provides an alternative. Its W-1 capsules already reenter at Mach 25. The company can integrate sensors, evaluate new thermal protective materials, or validate equipment in real flight conditions as opposed to approximations. The capsule serves as a wind tunnel, and the reentry acts as the test.

Varda has conducted experiments for the Air Force Research Laboratory, including an optical emission spectroscopy payload that collected in-situ measurements of the shock layer during reentry.

Investors are, not surprisingly, enthusiastic about Varda’s narrative. The company secured $329 million during its Series C round this past July, with the majority allocated for expanding its pharmaceutical lab in El Segundo. It’s also recruiting structural biologists and crystallization experts to work on more intricate molecules, eventually targeting biologics like monoclonal antibodies, a market Bruey claims amounts to $210 billion.

A considerable amount must align between now and then for Varda to carve out its place in that industry as well as to impact the market it is currently aiming at. But if Bruey is correct, “then” is nearer than most currently realize.