[imagesource:x/cnbc]

Space is now the new business frontier and Varda Space Industries is the first company to feel the sting of ‘space bureaucracy’.

Varda, an in-space manufacturing startup, launched its spacecraft back in June, intending to spend just a month in orbit. The mission was to demonstrate its groundbreaking tech for producing commercial materials, primarily pharmaceuticals, inside a recoverable capsule.

The goal was to bring these products back to Earth for further analysis and, hopefully, commercial use. At least, that was the plan.

Varda’s spacecraft has been stuck in space for two months now, awaiting clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Air Force to land in a remote part of Utah. The agencies declined Varda’s application for a commercial reentry license, citing non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

Varda has since appealed the decision, with the request currently pending. Meanwhile, their space lab orbits Earth, signifying both the cutting-edge of space sciences and bluntness of government bureaucracy.

Varda Space Industries wants to build the world’s first commercial microgravity industrial park at scale.

“From more powerful fiber optic cables to new, life-saving pharmaceuticals, there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space.”

Space offers a unique environment for research and development because its higher levels of radiation, microgravity and near vacuum-less state allows companies to come up with new manufacturing methods or materials that are not possible on Earth.

The practice is not entirely new. The International Space Station has hosted several experiments from academics, government agencies and commercial customers for things such as growing human tissue, making purer semiconductors and developing new or better drugs.

CNBC did an amazingly in-depth feature of @VardaSpace

Lordy our story is so much crisper/clearer than where we were a year ago…

The full Varda-focused segment here: pic.twitter.com/cEQT0SDKrd

— delian (@zebulgar) August 21, 2023

[source:instgram/news]