Space Drugs Factory Denied Reentry to Earth

Varda’s in-space manufacturing capsule.

After manufacturing crystals of an HIV drug in space, the first orbital factory is stuck in orbit after being denied reentry back to Earth due to safety concerns.

The U.S. Air Force denied a request from Varda Space Industries to land its in-space manufacturing capsule at a Utah training area, while the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not grant the company permission to reenter Earth’s atmosphere, leaving its spacecraft hanging as the company scrambles to find a solution, TechCrunch first reported. A spokesperson from the FAA told TechCrunch in an emailed statement that the company’s request was not granted at this time “due to the overall safety, risk and impact analysis.”

Read more

• 'Tesla Road Rage Guy' Gets Five Years In Prison

• 2 Black Models Were Found Dead In Their Los Angeles Apartments. Will They Receive Any Justice?

• Elon Musk Brought A Gun To A Cyberpunk 2077 Recording Session

• Wild Starfield Exploit Can Net You 9 Million Credits In An Hour

• Millennials and Gen Z Aren’t Shopping the Same Way

“It’s a very different type of re-entry capsule. If you think about it, both Dragon and Starliner, these are [SpaceX] vehicles that are $100 million-plus, minimum, to build, and billion-dollar-plus total programs. These are meant to carry humans, have active control, fully pressurized environments,” Asparouhov is quoted as saying in an interview in Ars Technica. “We are effectively the polar opposite type of re-entry vehicle. If those are luxurious limousines, we’re building like a 1986 Toyota Corolla that is meant to be less than a million bucks a pop, quickly refurbished, and then shot right back into space.”

Varda’s in-space manufacturing capsule is a byproduct of a growing space industry, which grants easier access to low Earth orbit. The current regulatory debacle is a also the result of a young space industry, one in which proper regulations of spacecraft are still taking shape.

For more spaceflight in your life, follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and bookmark Gizmodo’s dedicated Spaceflight page.

More from Gizmodo

• Mortal Kombat 1 Fans Can’t Stand Megan Fox’s Nitara Voice Acting

• Microsoft Casually Discussed Buying Nintendo Or Valve In Leaked Email

• The 'Tesla Road Rage' Guy Who Terrorized SoCal Had A Violent Past

• Xbox Expected A Red Dead Redemption 2 Next-Gen Update, Wanted It On Game Pass

• Should Hasan Minhaj Still Be a Contender to Host 'The Daily Show'?

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.