The first-of-its-kind commercial spacecraft, owned by a space manufacturing startup called Varda Space Industries, has been in orbit for two months longer than originally planned, and the government hopes it will return to Earth with a stash of medical samples. Waiting for approval.
Varda’s satellite will demonstrate the company’s technology to produce commercial materials, primarily pharmaceuticals, in retrievable capsules designed to return products to Earth for laboratory analysis and eventual commercial use. The mission was originally scheduled to last one month, but it was launched on June 12th.
But recovery of Varda’s capsule has been put on hold because the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force recently denied Varda permission to land the spacecraft in a remote area of Utah. First reported by TechCrunch The FAA denied Mr. Varda’s application for a commercial reentry permit.
“Varda Space Industries launched into space without obtaining re-entry clearance,” an FAA spokesperson told Ars on Wednesday. “On September 6, the FAA denied Balda’s reentry permit application because Balda failed to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements.”
An FAA spokeswoman said Varda formally asked the regulator to reconsider its decision two days later. “The request for reconsideration is pending,” the FAA said.
![A look inside Varda's mission control center.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/vardamcc-640x481.jpeg)
Varda Space Industries
According to TechCrunch, Varda was looking to land at the Utah Test and Training Range, a remote facility operated by the U.S. Air Force southwest of Salt Lake City, on September 5 and 7. This is the same landing range where NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission will return samples from the asteroid to Earth on Sunday. The Air Force also denied Varda permission to land, citing an “overall safety, risk and impact analysis.” TechCrunch reports that Varda and government officials are exploring other recovery options.
Varda did not provide comment to Ars for this story, but Post on social media platform X The company said last week that the spacecraft was “sound on all systems.” Varda said the company’s spacecraft is designed to stay in orbit for a full year if necessary, but the company will continue to work with government partners “to return the capsule to Earth as quickly as possible.” Ta.
untested waters
The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Operations is responsible for authorizing commercial launches and atmospheric reentry operations, but a large part of its work is reviewing launch authorization applications. The FAA has authorized 82 commercial launches so far this year, which is already more than it authorized in all of 2022. Ten years ago, the FAA authorized eight commercial launches.
The tenfold increase in U.S. commercial launch activity over the past decade is almost entirely due to SpaceX’s increased launch pace. The FAA has requested more funding to hire talent and support the rapidly growing commercial space industry.
Federal regulators are primarily concerned with the safety of the public, the risk of damage to property owned by third parties, and the environmental threats posed by commercial launch and reentry operations. It also reviews license applications to ensure that planned launches and reentries do not jeopardize U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.
It is highly unusual for the FAA to outright deny a commercial launch or reentry permit application. The FAA’s review is currently delaying the second full-scale test flight of SpaceX’s massive new Starship rocket, but it’s also fixing dozens of corrections the company claims it completed after the first Starship test launch in April. Federal authorities are working closely with SpaceX as they document their actions. . Once the FAA completes its review, likely within the next month. According to a senior FAA manager– The agency will decide whether to issue SpaceX with a modified launch license for its next Starship test flight.
However, re-entry permits are still relatively new. However, there aren’t that many re-entry vehicles in the air, and only two companies have received commercial re-entry licenses from the FAA so far.
![This graph from the FAA's Environmental Assessment shows the expected trajectory of the Varda reentry vehicle as it approaches the test and training range in Utah.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/varda_fonsi-640x297.jpg)
Varda co-founder Derian Asparoukhov told Ars in July that Varda and the FAA have been working together since the company was founded in 2020. He said some of the discussions between Varda and the FAA focused on the company’s plans to bring back self-driving cars on a regular basis. Space capsules to Earth could impact commercial air traffic.
“Eventually, as we start to reach large-scale economies in orbit, we’re going to need very low-cost, regularly flying atmospheric reentry vehicles. I think that’s Varda’s core capability.” Asparoukhov said in July.
On June 30, Varda Air delivered ritonavir, a drug commonly used to treat HIV, in a small laboratory inside a capsule about 1 meter (3 feet) wide attached to the side of a flying satellite. announced that they have completed an experiment to grow crystals. Altitude greater than 300 miles (500 kilometers).
Once the drug production experiments were completed, the next milestone of the mission was to place the satellite into orbit back into the atmosphere. Varda’s capsule then separates from the host spacecraft provided by Rocket Lab and burns up during reentry. The capsule is protected by a heat shield and has a parachute that slows the capsule for a relatively soft landing and sends the medicine back to scientists for evaluation.
The first landing slot for this mission opened up in July, but Varda avoided that opportunity because it was waiting for FAA clearance.
The spacecraft currently in orbit is the first of Varda’s Winnebago series, and Varda has a contract with Rocket Lab for at least three more Winnebago-class missions, with plans to increase to higher flight speeds in the coming years. . Varda said space’s microgravity environment has advantages for producing materials such as new drugs, semiconductors and optical fibers.
SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner are two other commercial reentry vehicles that have returned to Earth from space. Both are significantly larger and more complex than Varda’s vehicle.
Asparoukhov likened the Dragon and Starliner to luxury limousines. “We’re building something like a 1986 Toyota Corolla, which costs less than $1 million each and is intended to be quickly refurbished and sent into space soon.” he said.