Alumni place Varda’s first spacecraft into orbit

Varda’s goal is to create a fleet of satellites that will be used to carry out pharmaceutical research in the microgravity of Earth’s orbit. In the recent test, Varda’s 200-pound satellite successfully separated from the rocket.

Eventually, Varda will have a fleet of research and production capsules that will grow specific protein crystals while in space. These capsules will then de-orbit and parachute back to Earth, where the pharmaceutical materials inside will be used to make prescription drugs. Past studies have shown that growing some protein crystals in space leads to more perfect structures than shown by crystals grown on Earth. The more perfect structures have a positive effect on the pharmaceuticals these crystals are used to create.

Varda was founded by Cornell alumni Will Bruey ’11 M.Eng. ’12 in 2020 and has already raised more than $100 million in seed funding and grants from investors who are confident the technology will succeed. While at Cornell, Bruey was active in Professor Mason Peck’s Space Systems Design Studio, as was Varda’s director of autonomous systems Wendy Shimata ’09.

You can learn more about Varda and space manufacturing in this article from the MAE Newsletter.