When Will Bruey envisions the future, he sees timelines that are much shorter than most expect. The CEO of Varda Space Industries predicts that in just 10 years, we could witness multiple specialized spacecraft racing toward Earth each night like shooting stars, all bringing back pharmaceuticals manufactured in space. He believes that in 15 to 20 years, sending a working-class person to orbit for a month might become cheaper than keeping them on Earth.
Bruey’s confidence stems from his experience at SpaceX, where he witnessed ambitious business projections turn into reality.
“I remember the first rocket I worked on at SpaceX was flight three of Falcon 9,” he shared at TechCrunch’s recent Disrupt event. This partially reusable, two-stage rocket has successfully completed nearly 600 missions. “If someone had told me about ‘reusable rockets’ and how we’d witness as many flights as daily flights out of LAX, I’d have thought that was a 15 to 20-year dream. But that feels right now like this same futuristic vision.”
Varda has already validated its core concept. In February 2024, the company became only the third business to successfully bring something back from orbit: ritonavir crystals, an HIV medication. This places it in an exclusive club alongside SpaceX and Boeing. Since then, it has completed a few more missions.
The pharmaceuticals are returned to Earth in the W-1 capsule, a small, cone-shaped spacecraft roughly the size of a large kitchen trash can. Varda launches these capsules on-demand aboard SpaceX rideshare missions, where they are hosted by a Rocket Lab spacecraft bus that supplies power, communication, propulsion, and control during their time in orbit.
So why opt for manufacturing crystals in space? In microgravity, the usual factors that hinder crystal formation on Earth—like sedimentation and gravity—effectively vanish. Varda asserts that this gives them much finer control over crystallization, leading to uniform sizes or even new polymorphs (distinct structural arrangements of the same molecule). These advancements can yield considerable benefits: improved stability, higher purity, and a longer shelf life for drugs.
The manufacturing process isn’t quick; it may take weeks or even months. However, once finished, the capsule detaches from the spacecraft bus and re-enters Earth’s atmosphere at over 30,000 km/h, reaching speeds beyond Mach 25. A heat shield made from NASA-developed carbon ablator material safeguards the cargo, while a parachute ensures a gentle landing.
Bruey believes many misunderstand Varda’s mission. “We’re not ‘in the space industry; we’re in the in-space industry,’” he explained. Space is just another platform for shipping.
In other words, he suggests thinking of it like a bioreactor or just an oven with the usual settings—temperature, stirring rate, pressure—where Varda simply adds a “gravity knob.”
“Forget about space for a second,” Bruey continued. “We just have this magic oven in the back of our warehouse where we can create formulations that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.”
It’s important to note that Varda isn’t in the business of discovering new drugs or molecules but aims to enhance what’s already available with approved drugs.
This isn’t speculative science; pharmaceutical companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck have been conducting crystallization tests on the International Space Station for years, confirming that it works. Varda is merely commercializing this by constructing the infrastructure for it to be done repetitively, reliably, and at a scale relevant to the pharmaceutical industry.
Timing is crucial for Varda’s success. Two key shifts have occurred. First, space launches have become more predictable and bookable. “Ten years ago, if you weren’t a primary mission, getting a ride to orbit was like hitchhiking,” Bruey explained. “While still pricey, it’s now reliable—you can reserve a spot, and we’ve booked launches years in advance.”
Secondly, companies like Rocket Lab have created off-the-shelf satellite buses. Purchasing Photon buses from Rocket Lab and integrating their pharmaceutical manufacturing capsules was a game-changer.
However, only the most valuable products can justify these costs. That’s why Varda began with pharmaceuticals since a drug fetching thousands per dose can absorb transportation expenses.
Bruey often talks about the “seven domino” theory when he meets with members of Congress.
Domino one: reusable rockets. Check. Domino two: manufacturing drugs in orbit and bringing them back. Domino three is critical: clinching a drug for clinical trials. “That’s significant because it means ongoing launches.”
Where Varda’s business model diverges is in how it operates compared to traditional space companies.
Take satellite companies, for instance: SiriusXM launches satellites for radio while DirecTV does the same for TV. Even Starlink is essentially constructing a one-time constellation network that, once complete, won’t need continuous launches for functionality. For these businesses, launching is seen as a capital investment where money is spent to place hardware in orbit, and that’s it.
Varda’s approach is different. Every drug formulation triggers manufacturing runs, which, in turn, necessitates new launches. Increasing demand for drugs translates to more launches.
This shift is vital because it alters the economics for launch providers. Instead of just a fixed number of launches for a satellite constellation, they now have a customer with theoretically infinite demand that rises with success. This kind of predictable, scalable need supports fixed launch infrastructure costs and helps reduce per-launch prices.
Domino four ignites this feedback loop: as Varda expands, costs decrease, making the next tier of drugs financially feasible. This cycle keeps propelling the demand for more drugs and launches, leading Bruey to believe it will “plummet launch costs.”
Although Varda’s commercial viability is still in question and no space-manufactured drugs are on pharmacy shelves yet, the beneficial cycle Bruey envisions will not only aid Varda but also lower launch costs for other industries, like semiconductors and exotic materials—fields that could really benefit from microgravity but haven’t justified the costs yet.
Bruey tells his team that eventually, launch costs will drop so low that putting an employee in orbit for a month could be less expensive than creating added automation.
“I picture ‘Jane’ going to space for a month. It’ll be like visiting an oil rig. She works in the drug factory, returns home, and becomes the first person to go to space back and contribute more value than what it cost to get her there.”
He believes this is when “the invisible hand of the free market economy lifts us off our home planet.”
Bruey shared that Varda’s journey almost ended before it truly began.
In June 2023, the company launched W-1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission. The capsule’s pharmaceutical process worked perfectly, producing difficult-to-create ritonavir crystals. However, the capsule remained in orbit for six months. The challenge? Approval to bring it back home.
Bruey explained that the Utah Test and Training Range, where Varda planned to land, prioritizes “testing weapons and training warriors.” Thus, Varda wasn’t on their priority list. When more pressing military missions required the range, Varda’s landing windows got postponed, invalidating their reentry license with the FAA and forcing them to restart the approval process.
“There were 80 people at the office who dedicated two and a half years to this project, and now it was orbiting but we didn’t know if it could come home,” Bruey recalled.
From the outside looking in, it might’ve appeared that Varda had acted recklessly by launching without proper approvals. However, Bruey explained that the FAA had actually approved their launch without a finalized reentry license to foster the emerging commercial reentry sector.
“They encouraged us to go ahead with our launch, intending that we would continue coordinating the license and timing during our time in orbit,” Bruey noted.
The challenge lay in the fact that this was the first commercial land reentry ever attempted, with no established collaboration process between the Utah range and the FAA. Each entity felt they bore the liability.
Varda searched for solutions. Water landing? The capsule doesn’t float, so that wouldn’t work. Australia? That was a possibility, and discussions started. But Bruey ultimately decided against half-measures.
“It’s time either to push regulatory boundaries for this future or not,” he asserted. “For Varda to succeed, we need to land on land regularly. So we just bit the bullet and said, ‘Let’s figure this one out.’”
While the first mission was still in limbo, the company pressed on with production for the next capsule and continued hiring.
Finally, in February 2024—eight months post-launch—W-1 safely returned home. It landed successfully at the Utah Test and Training Range, marking it the first commercial spacecraft to land at a military test range and the first under the FAA’s Part 450 licensing framework, which was introduced in 2021 to provide more flexibility for commercial space operations.
Now, Varda has landing sites in both the U.S. and Australia, and it has received an FAA Part 450 operator license allowing it to reenter U.S. territory without needing to resubmit full safety documentation for each flight.
Additionally, Varda has developed a secondary business out of necessity: hypersonic testing.
Few objects ever travel through the atmosphere at Mach 25. Experiencing those speeds leads to extreme conditions: temperatures soar into the thousands, creating plasma around the vehicle. The air undergoes chemical transformations as molecules are torn apart and recombined. This environment can’t be mimicked on Earth, even with advanced wind tunnels.
Defense agencies like the Air Force need real hypersonic conditions to test materials, sensors, navigation systems, and communication gear. Normally, this involves high-risk dedicated test flights costing over $100 million each.
Varda provides a solution. Its W-1 capsules return to Earth at Mach 25, allowing the company to embed sensors, test new thermal protection materials, or validate equipment during actual flights rather than simulations. The capsule acts like a wind tunnel, with reentry serving as the experiment.
Varda has already conducted experiments for the Air Force Research Laboratory, including an optical emission spectroscopy payload that took real-time measurements of the shock layer during reentry.
Investors are showing significant interest in Varda’s story. The company raised $329 million in its Series C round last July, with a large portion aimed at developing its pharmaceutical lab in El Segundo. It’s also hiring structural biologists and crystallization experts to work with more complex molecules, including biologics like monoclonal antibodies, a market valued at $210 billion.
However, a lot must align for Varda to penetrate that sector and make significant impacts in its current target markets. If Bruey’s vision holds true, the future might unfold sooner than many anticipate.
