Varda Space Industries, a California-based startup, has signed an agreement with a private range operator in Australia to allow spacecraft landings as early as next year. This comes after the US government denied approval for Varda’s first experimental mission to reenter American soil carrying pharmaceuticals manufactured in orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Air Force cited safety concerns as the reason for the denial.
Varda Space Industries plans to conduct regularly scheduled missions into low-Earth orbit for pharmaceutical research experiments and the manufacturing of drugs and other products in a microgravity environment. The company successfully grew crystals of ritonavir, a drug used to treat HIV, inside its spacecraft during its first small satellite mission. One of the key technologies that needs to be tested is the reentry vehicle, a capsule mounted on a Rocket Lab satellite, that will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and land safely.
Due to the US government’s refusal to grant approval for reentry, Varda is now exploring other landing options for its future missions. The company has reached an agreement with Southern Launch, an Australian company, to allow its second mission in mid-2024 to reenter and land at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia. Varda’s chairman, Delian Asparouhov, stated that having multiple landing sites was always part of their plan and that they view Australia as a suitable partner for national security missions in aerospace and defense.
The Koonibba Test Range, covering about 9,000 square miles of uninhabited land, has hosted several suborbital rocket launches in recent years. Varda’s landing operations in Australia would still require a commercial reentry license from the FAA. Asparouhov believes it will be easier to secure approval from the FAA and Australian regulators for reentry to the Australian range compared to the Utah Test and Training Range in the US.
While Varda is working with the FAA and the Utah range to schedule another reentry window in the coming months for its first spacecraft, Asparouhov mentioned that it is not critical to the company’s future plans. Varda’s focus is on advancing in-space manufacturing and pharmaceutical research, and successfully landing the capsule would be an added benefit.
In addition to its space missions, Varda has also won a contract with the US Air Force to use its re-entry vehicles as test platforms for materials used in hypersonic missiles and aircraft. Asparouhov suggested that military ranges, like the one in Utah, need to adapt to support commercial spacecraft reentries, similar to how the Space Force’s launch ranges accommodate commercial launches.
However, Varda’s experience with the FAA highlights the challenges the agency is facing in keeping up with the rapid growth of the commercial space industry. The FAA’s licensing process for reentry operations is relatively new, and the increasing number of missions being launched has led to delays in determining licensing requests. Asparouhov believes that the FAA needs to allocate more resources and coordinate with industry players well in advance to avoid last-minute licensing determinations.
As the commercial space industry continues to experience exponential growth, it is crucial for regulatory agencies like the FAA to adapt and streamline their processes to support the industry’s needs.