Varda raises $250m to make medicines in orbit, and flies two capsules at once for the first time

The stories

22 on this beat today.

Every story told the same way: what happened, who is involved, why it matters, how it works, the truth and the good news.

1. 01

   Varda raises $250m to make medicines in orbit, and flies two capsules at once for the first time

   $1.6bn

   what investors say Varda is worth after this round

   It has raised nearly $600m in all since 2021. [1][2]

   5 of 6

   Varda capsules that came back from space as planned

   Only the fourth, of six flown since 2023, did not. [1]

   70%

   of Varda's customers next year are governments

   Its chief expects drug companies to be the majority by 2032. [1]

   28

   launches Varda has booked with several rocket companies

   They run from 2027 to 2029, as SpaceX winds down its shared rides. [1]

   What happened

   • Varda Space Industries, a California company whose small capsules carry experiments to orbit and fall back to Earth, has raised about $250m. [1][2]
   • Investors valued the company at $1.6bn.
   • Two investment funds, Lux Capital and Natural Capital, led the round. [1][2]
   • Varda has now raised nearly $600m since it was founded in 2021. [1][2]
   • Since 2023 it has flown six capsules, and all but the fourth came back from space as planned. [1]
   • Today, for the first time, it sends two capsules up together, called W-8 and W-9. [1][2]
   • They ride on Transporter-18, a SpaceX flight that carries many customers' satellites at once, from California at 18:18 GMT at the earliest. [2][3]
   • Both carry tests for the US military.
   • W-8 measures how hot the capsule gets on the way down, and W-9 tests navigation at very high speed. [2]
   • Each capsule is about the size of a dishwasher and falls back through the air at about 25 times the speed of sound.
   • That fast fall is itself useful to the US military for research. [1]
   • Varda's longer bet is medicine.
   • Without gravity, drug ingredients can form crystals in ways they cannot on Earth, Payload reports. [2]
   • About 70% of next year's customers are governments, and the rest are drug companies, chief executive Will Bruey told Reuters.
   • He expects that mix to flip by 2032. [1]
   • Bruey called the first test of a space-made medicine in a person, around 2030, the biggest milestone in the company's history. [1]
   • SpaceX is winding down the shared rides Varda uses today.
   • Bruey said Varda has 28 launches booked with several rocket companies from 2027 to 2029. [1]

   • Governments70%
   • Drug companies30%

   Who is involved

   • Varda Space Industries a California company, founded in 2021, that flies small capsules to orbit and back; it raised the money [1]
   • Will Bruey Varda's chief executive and a former SpaceX engineer; he set out the company's plans [1]
   • Lux Capital and Natural Capital US investment funds that back young companies; they led the round [1][2]
   • The US military pays to fly tests on Varda's capsules; W-9 carries one of its payloads [2]
   • SpaceX the rocket company flying Varda's capsules today, and a rival with its own return service, Starfall [1]

   How it unfolded

   1. 2021 Varda is founded [1]
   2. 2023 the first of six capsule flights [1]
   3. Sept 2026 a funding round of about $250m closes [1]
   4. 1 Oct 2026 W-8 and W-9 launch together on Transporter-18 [2][3]
   5. About 2030 the planned first test of a space-made medicine in a person [1]
   6. 2032 drug companies expected to outnumber government customers [1]

   Why it matters

   The next check is whether both capsules land in one piece, since flying two at once is new for Varda and one of its six earlier capsules did not come back as planned. [1][2]

   The truth

   • What is really going on Investors valued Varda at $1.6bn while governments are still 70% of its customers. [1]
   • Why it works on people A $1.6bn price makes Varda sound like a proven medicine maker. Its own chief says the first test of a space-made medicine in a person is around 2030. [1]
   • Who gains The US military — It flies tests of very fast flight on Varda's capsules without building its own, and W-9 carries one of its payloads today. [1][2]
   • Who gains Rocket companies other than SpaceX — As SpaceX winds down its shared rides, Varda has booked 28 launches with several providers. [1]
   • Who pays Small satellite companies that relied on SpaceX's shared rides — SpaceX is winding those rides down, which has alarmed much of the industry. [1]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether a medicine made in orbit will work in people.

     Varda's chief puts the first test in a person around 2030, and no human has received one yet. [1]

   Good news

   • Five of the six capsules Varda has sent to orbit since 2023 came back to Earth as planned.

1. 02

   NASA loosens its Mars germ rules

   What happened

   • NASA's chief, Jared Isaacman, told staff the agency is loosening its rules for keeping Earth germs off Mars. [4]
   • Two watchdog websites obtained and shared the message on 29 September. [4]
   • In 1964 COSPAR, an international science committee, asked each mission to keep the chance of leaving hardy Earth life on such a world below one in ten thousand. [4]
   • COSPAR made the rules stricter in 1969, when many Mars missions, some with crews, were expected. [4]
   • NASA now goes straight back to the 1964 limit, and a review due in December may loosen it further. [4]

   Why it matters

   Earth germs that survive on Mars could spoil any later search for life that started there.

   Isaacman says the change lets NASA explore faster and prepare to send people. [4]

   How it works

   A safety rule is sized for the traffic its writers expected

   Rules for keeping Earth germs off Mars were tightened in 1969 for crewed flights that never came, so NASA is now loosening them.

   The twist

   The one-in-ten-thousand limit on Mars was never only about germs. It also held a guess about how many spacecraft would go there.

   The picture

   123

   1,9601,9952,030

   1. 1COSPAR sets the one-in-ten-thousand limit1,964
   2. 2Rule tightened for expected crewed flights1,969
   3. 3NASA goes back to the 1964 limit2,026

   Step by step

   1. 1 Rule writers guess how many craft will go somewhere
   2. 2 More craft means more chances of harm, so a busy future gets a stricter rule
   3. 3 The rule stays fixed while the real number of craft changes
   4. 4 If fewer come than expected, the rule looks too costly and someone loosens it
   5. 5 If more come, the people being harmed ask for a stricter one

   The same force, elsewhere today

   Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

   • NASA loosens its Mars germ rules

     COSPAR tightened the limit in 1969 for crewed Mars flights that did not come, so NASA is going back to the 1964 limit.

   • Astronomers want a world court to weigh in on satellites

     The 1967 treaty's due-regard rule was written decades before anyone planned hundreds of thousands of satellites, so astronomers want a court to say what it asks for now.

   • Artemis Accords countries to meet on Moon debris

     Countries are writing debris advice for the Moon now, because more of them plan to send hardware there.

   Where you've seen this

   Fire exits in a hall

   the number of doors is set by the crowd the hall was built for, and a bigger crowd needs a new limit

   Fishing limits

   a catch limit set when few boats fished gets cut when many more boats arrive

   Speed limits

   a limit set for a quiet lane is lowered when a new school brings children walking along it

   The catch

   Going back to a looser limit for each flight is safe only while flights stay few. If crewed Mars missions do start, the 1969 reasoning comes back.

   And the whole of it

   Engineers cleaning a Mars lander, astronomers counting satellite streaks and anyone looking up at night all live under limits set long ago. Each limit was built on a guess about how busy space would get, and most people never learn what that guess was.

   The truth

   • What is really going on NASA's chief loosened the rules on Earth germs reaching Mars, saying the old ones were designed in a different era. [4]
   • Who gains Mission planners sending craft to Mars — The 1969 rules were stricter and more costly, and going back to 1964 lets NASA explore faster, Isaacman says. [4]
   • Who pays Scientists searching Mars for life — Hardy Earth germs that survive there could spoil the search, which is the risk the 1964 rule was written to limit. [4]
   • Nobody knows yet

     How loose NASA's Mars germ rule will become.

     A review is due in December 2026, and the message names no new number below the 1964 limit. [4]

   • Nobody knows yet

     Why NASA is changing the rule so fast.

     Isaacman's message gives no specific reason for the rush, and NASA had not answered Scientific American's questions. [4]

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether other space agencies will follow NASA.

     The COSPAR rules are international, and the message itself says the stricter version has implications for international and private missions. None of today's sources reports how other agencies responded. [4]

1. 03

   SpaceX plans three launches in 13 hours

   What happened

   • SpaceX plans to launch three rockets within 13 hours today. [3]
   • First, at 15:10 GMT, a Falcon 9 is due to carry the four astronauts of Crew-13 to the International Space Station. [3][5]
   • One NASA forecast gave the weather a 60% chance of allowing it, and the evening briefing gave 55%. [5][6]
   • Transporter-18 follows from California at 18:18 GMT with 130 payloads. [3]
   • At 03:53 GMT on 2 October a Falcon Heavy is due to launch NROL-97, a secret satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office. [3]

   15:10 GMTCrew-13

   ++

   18:18 GMTTransporter-18

   ++

   03:53 GMTNROL-97

   Why it matters

   Crew-13 relieves Crew-12, whose four astronauts stayed weeks longer in orbit after a leak in the capsule delayed this flight from 12 September.

   If the weather says no, the next try is on Friday. [5]

   The truth

   • Who pays Crew-12's four astronauts — They stayed weeks longer in orbit because a leak in the capsule delayed their relief flight from 12 September. [5]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether Crew-13 launches today.

     One NASA forecast gave the weather a 60% chance of allowing the launch, and the evening briefing gave 55%. Friday is the backup. [5][6]

2. 04

   First picture of gas swirling round a newborn planet

   What happened

   • Astronomers using ALMA, a set of 66 radio dishes in Chile, have imaged gas swirling around a planet that is still forming. [7][8]
   • The planet, WISPIT 2b, is about five times the mass of Jupiter and about 430 light-years away. [7][8]
   • Computer models had predicted those swirls, but nobody had seen them before, said Myriam Benisty of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. [7][8]
   • A second young planet, WISPIT 2c, orbits closer in, at 15 times Earth's distance from the Sun, and has cleared a hole in the same disc of gas and dust. [7]

   WISPIT 2c15

   WISPIT 2b57

   Why it matters

   It lets astronomers watch a planet grow instead of only modelling it.

   WISPIT 2b gathers material 57 times as far from its star as Earth is from the Sun, wider than almost any known planet. [8]

   Good news

   • Astronomers have seen, for the first time, gas swirling around a planet that is still forming. Computer models had predicted the swirls, and now there is a picture of them.
3. 05

   Astronomers want a world court to weigh in on satellites

   What happened

   • Astronomers led by the Outer Space Institute, a research group, want the United Nations to ask its top court, the International Court of Justice, for an opinion on crowded orbits. [9]
   • SpaceX, Google and Starcloud have announced plans for hundreds of thousands of data-centre satellites, which astronomers say could erase stars from the night sky. [9]
   • The UN's space committee works only when every country agrees, and an earlier plan for an expert group on light pollution stalled there. [9]
   • A request to the court needs only a simple majority of the UN General Assembly. [9]

   UN space committeeall must agree

   vsvs

   UN General Assemblyhalf plus one

   Why it matters

   The court would explain the 1967 Outer Space Treaty's rule that countries act with due regard for others.

   Its opinions cannot be enforced, but campaigners used an earlier climate opinion to win a Paris case ordering TotalEnergies to disclose climate risks. [9]

   How it works

   The 1967 treaty's due-regard rule was written decades before anyone planned hundreds of thousands of satellites, so astronomers want a court to say what it asks for now.

   The idea, in story 02: A safety rule is sized for the traffic its writers expected →

   The truth

   • Who pays Astronomers and anyone who looks at the night sky — Plans for hundreds of thousands of data-centre satellites could erase stars from the sky, astronomers say. [9]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Which country, if any, will take the astronomers' request to the UN.

     One country has to propose it to the General Assembly, and the report names none that has agreed to. [9]

4. 06

   Starship's next flight could try a catch

   What happened

   • Starship, SpaceX's giant new rocket, reached orbit for the first time on 28 September. [16]
   • Its next test, Flight 15, could come on 19 October at the earliest, according to planning papers. [16]
   • Elon Musk has said SpaceX may try to catch the upper stage with the launch tower's arms on that flight. [16]
   • SpaceX has caught the lower stage, Super Heavy, three times but never the upper one. [16]
   • It has also never moved fuel from one ship to another in orbit. [16]

   Why it matters

   Moon landings need that fuel transfer, and estimates run from eight to about twenty tanker flights for each one.

   NASA picked Starship as the lander for its crewed Moon missions, and Artemis IV is meant to land people in 2028. [16]

5. 07

   Russia's new crew ship to drop-test its parachutes

   What happened

   • Roscosmos, Russia's state space company, says it will drop-test the parachutes of its next crew spacecraft this autumn in Russia's Far East. [10]
   • Its chief, Dmitry Bakanov, told the Interfax news agency about the plan. [10]
   • Interfax also reported a test of the ship's launch-pad escape system later this year. [10]
   • The project has run for nearly 20 years under several names, including Eagle, and officials now aim for a first crewed flight in 2028 or 2029. [10]

   Why it matters

   The ship is meant to replace Soyuz for carrying cosmonauts to orbit, and to be able to reach the Moon.

   Ars Technica says it is unclear whether the tests will use real flight hardware or mock-ups. [10]

   The truth

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether Russia's crew-ship tests use real flight hardware.

     The Interfax report does not say whether the parachute and escape tests use the real ship or mock-ups. [10]

6. 08

   The first planets were mostly melted rock

   What happened

   • A team led by Damanveer Grewal of Yale University studied iron meteorites, broken off the earliest small worlds by violent crashes. [11]
   • Their sulphur and iron chemistry suggests those worlds held only 8% to 17% of the fluffy, icy dust that later built comets. [11]
   • The rest was chondrules: millimetre-sized beads of rock that melted in violent heating and then cooled fast. [11]
   • So in its first million years or so, the solar system probably built its first small worlds mostly from these melted beads. [11]

   Why it matters

   Almost no untouched rock survives from that time, because a radioactive form of aluminium melted the early worlds from inside.

   That is why the team read the story from meteorites instead. [11]

7. 09

   Hop Aero raises $11m for rocket delivery

   What happened

   • Hop Aero, a seven-person start-up, raised $11m to build small rockets that would carry cargo up through space and down somewhere far away. [12]
   • Its rocket, Rook, has never flown untethered, and the bigger Rook 2 is due to fly in mid-2027. [12]
   • At the Oklahoma Spaceport it test-fired four engine designs, from cautious to likely-to-explode, and none blew up. [12]
   • It still has to show it can land intact and on target after a very fast fall through the air. [12]

   Why it matters

   The company says its strongest demand is from militaries that want swarms of drones carried hundreds of miles into contested areas.

   Landing on target is the problem that has kept rocket cargo delivery on the drawing board for years. [12]

   The truth

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether Hop Aero can land a rocket on target.

     None of its tests so far has tried landing after a very fast fall through the air. [12]

   Good news

   • Hop Aero test-fired four engine designs, from cautious to likely to explode, and none of them blew up.
8. 10

   A Lithuanian start-up raises money for a docking kit

   What happened

   • Blackswan Space, a Lithuanian start-up known for mission-planning software, raised EUR 2.5m, about $2.8m, in a round led by Iron Wolf Capital. [13]
   • The money pays for the first space test of its RPO Kit, which lets one satellite approach another and dock with it. [13]
   • The test is due in late 2027, riding on a partner's satellite. [13]
   • Orbit Fab, a company that wants to refuel satellites in orbit, picked the kit for its ESA-funded ASTRAL mission in 2028. [13]

   Why it matters

   Blackswan's chief calls docking probably the hardest thing to do in orbit.

   The company is betting that servicing firms would rather buy that ability than build it. [13]

   The truth

   • Who gains Orbit Fab, a satellite-refuelling company — It can buy a ready-made docking kit for its 2028 mission instead of building its own. [13]
9. 11

   Europe picks its own cloud firms for satellite data

   What happened

   • The European Space Agency, ESA, hired OVHcloud and CGI to build a system to store and process Europe's Earth-watching satellite data. [14]
   • OVHcloud is Europe's largest cloud computing company, and CGI, a consulting firm, will design and connect the system. [14]
   • ESA expects to hold more than 500 petabytes of such data by 2035; a petabyte is a million gigabytes. [14]
   • The 30-month contract is worth several million euros, and ESA gave no exact figure. [14]

   Why it matters

   It follows a European Commission push to keep important computing work with European companies.

   The system will feed Copernicus, the EU's Earth-watching programme. [14]

   The truth

   • Who gains OVHcloud and CGI — Their contract fits the European Commission's push to steer important computing work to European firms. [14]
10. 12

    Artemis Accords countries to meet on Moon debris

    What happened

    • Countries that signed the Artemis Accords, a US-led set of principles for exploring the Moon, will meet next week at a space conference in Turkey. [15]
    • They will discuss how to share advice on limiting debris on the Moon, and how to help countries starting out in space. [15]
    • Seventeen countries signed this year, the most since 2024, and African members rose from four to nine. [15]
    • NASA's deputy chief, Matt Anderson, and the head of Peru's space agency will lead the meeting. [15]

    Why it matters

    The advice is being written as more countries plan Moon missions.

    Isaacman says at least half of the signatories have committed experiments to the lunar surface. [15]

    How it works

    Countries are writing debris advice for the Moon now, because more of them plan to send hardware there.

    The idea, in story 02: A safety rule is sized for the traffic its writers expected →

    Good news

    • Seventeen countries joined the Artemis Accords for working together on the Moon this year, and the number of African members rose from four to nine.
11. 13

    Why the Swift telescope rescue failed

    What happened

    • Katalyst Space Technologies, a US company, has explained why its robot spacecraft Link failed to save Swift, a NASA space telescope that is sinking towards Earth. [17]
    • A part Katalyst built itself, the electronics for the wheels that turn Link, shorted and overheated. [17]
    • Weeks later a gas-thruster valve stopped responding, and Link began to spin. [17]
    • Suppliers could not deliver power parts in time, so a stretched team built them and could not test them with enough care, said Katalyst's Kieran Wilson. [17]
    • NASA had given Katalyst nine months and $30m. [17]

    Why it matters

    Shawn Domagal-Goldman, who runs NASA's astrophysics division, said the first lesson is not to wait until the last minute. [17]

    John Van Eepoel, Swift's mission director at NASA, said other NASA space observatories need help and the agency is looking at servicing them. [17]

12. 14

    Tracker names 17 likely US jammer satellites

    What happened

    • The United States announced on 14 September that it has placed weapons in space, the first country to say so in public. [18]
    • Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks launches and satellites, has now picked out 17 small US satellites that he thinks are jammers. [18]
    • A jammer sends out radio noise that drowns the signals between a satellite and the ground. [18]
    • All 17 went up as secret cargo over the past four years. [18]
    • They sit so high that each one stays above the same region of Earth. [18]

    Why it matters

    Countries have no agreed rule on how close one satellite may fly to another, and experts fear a close pass could start a conflict. [18]

    Companies also need close flying to repair satellites and remove debris. [18]

13. 15

    Exercise keeps astronauts' hearts fit for Mars

    What happened

    • A study in the journal Circulation followed 13 astronauts, or 14 by its press release, through at least six months each on the International Space Station. [19]
    • In weightlessness the heart has less work to do and shrinks, which can cause fainting back on the ground. [19]
    • The astronauts scanned their own hearts with ultrasound five times during their stay. [19]
    • Their hearts shrank and pumped less blood in the first weeks. [19]
    • Each exercised hard for about two hours a day, and by the end their hearts were back near their pre-flight state. [19]

    Why it matters

    A trip to Mars takes six to nine months, and space agencies feared crews would arrive too weak to work. [19]

    Radiation in deep space and damage to eyesight are still unsolved, Universe Today notes. [19]

14. 16

    Mars's north pole ice is cleaner than thought

    What happened

    • Mars has a cap of water ice at its north pole, and earlier models put dust at about 25% of the weight of its top layer. [20]
    • Two researchers now estimate about 3%, in a study in the journal npj Space Exploration. [20]
    • They combined modelling with readings from three instruments, one of them a camera on the long-retired Phoenix lander. [20]
    • A dustier frost forms in the Martian winter, said Aditya Khuller of the University of Washington in the United States, one of the two. [20]
    • It goes away in the Martian summer and exposes cleaner, older ice. [20]

    Why it matters

    The cap is a possible source of water for future crews. [20]

    Its layers of ice and dust also record how the climate of Mars changed as the planet's tilt swung between 15 and 35 degrees. [20]

15. 17

    Smile satellite sends its first aurora pictures

    What happened

    • Smile, a satellite run jointly by the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has sent back the first pictures from its ultraviolet camera. [21]
    • They show the northern lights swirling over the North Pole on 24 July, during a large burst of particles from the Sun. [21]
    • Such storms happen when the solar wind, the stream of particles from the Sun, meets Earth's magnetic field. [21]
    • Smile launched in May into a long, stretched orbit. [21]
    • Its camera works in ultraviolet light because daytime sunlight does not get in the way there. [21]

    Why it matters

    Smile will record the lights for 45 hours at a time, the European Space Agency says. [21]

    Its X-ray camera has also pictured the remains of a distant exploded star, and will later be pointed at Earth too. [21]

16. 18

    Fewer new stars, but the gas remains

    What happened

    • A team led by Hong Guo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences measured hydrogen gas, the raw material of stars, across about 2.5 million galaxies. [22]
    • It used FAST, a radio telescope 500 metres across, and a sky survey called DESI. [22]
    • Stars were forming about 2.5 times as fast 4.5 billion years ago as they are today. [22]
    • The supply of that hydrogen was only about 1.4 times today's. [22]
    • Guo said the team had not expected the gas to change so little while star-making fell so much. [22]

    Why it matters

    The study suggests less gas now flows into galaxies from the space between them, so less hydrogen becomes the cold clouds where stars form. [22]

    FAST can look back only about 7.2 billion years, so earlier times need other surveys. [22]

17. 19

    Giant planet will slip from view in 2033

    What happened

    • TOI-1355 b is a giant planet about 805 light-years away, nearly six times the mass of Jupiter. [23]
    • It circles its star once every 2.17 days. [23]
    • Astronomers study it through the small dip in starlight each time it crosses in front of its star. [23]
    • A team led by Noriharu Watanabe of the University of Tokyo found that its orbit is slowly tilting. [23]
    • The team estimates that from 2033 those crossings will no longer be visible from Earth. [23]

    Why it matters

    Astronomers have less than seven years left to study the planet this way. [23]

    Its oval orbit may hold clues to how giant planets end up so close to their stars. [23]

18. 20

    NASA studies Scottish rocks to read Mars

    What happened

    • NASA scientists collected rock earlier this year from cliffs at Clachtoll, a small coastal community in the Highlands of Scotland. [24]
    • The rocks, called the Stoer Formation, formed in settings like the lakes and rivers of ancient Mars, NASA said. [24]
    • They may also hold traces of microbes from 1.2 billion years ago. [24]
    • NASA said last year that its Perseverance rover on Mars had found marks in rock that tiny living things may have made. [24]
    • Researchers from the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge took part in the Scottish trip. [24]

    Why it matters

    NASA said that learning how signs of ancient life show up in Earth rocks helps it judge whether they could be found on Mars. [24]

19. 21

    New test backs a twist in ancient light

    What happened

    • The oldest light in the universe set out about 380,000 years after the Big Bang and still reaches Earth as faint microwaves. [25]
    • A 2020 study found that the direction in which this light vibrates seems to have turned slightly, all across the sky. [25]
    • The main theory of how the universe works says that turn should be zero. [25]
    • A new study compared eight sky maps from the Planck spacecraft, because a real turn would be equal in every map and an instrument error would differ. [25]
    • It found the turn appears to be real. [25]

    Why it matters

    The result is not strong enough to settle the question, Universe Today reports. [25]

    If it holds, that theory is wrong or incomplete, and one idea is an undiscovered particle that turns the light. [25]

20. 22

    A new way to rank planets for life

    What happened

    • Astronomers often assume that a planet around an older star has had more time to grow complex life. [26]
    • Christopher Doughty of Northern Arizona University, in the United States, proposes counting something else: how much carbon living things could capture there each year. [26]
    • More growth means more generations, and so more chances for life to change. [26]
    • His team scored 29 confirmed rocky planets this way. [26]
    • Two matched or beat Earth: K2-3d, about 143 light-years away, and GJ 1061c, 12 light-years away. [26]

    Why it matters

    The authors say plainly that this does not mean anyone lives on either planet. [26]

    TRAPPIST-1e, a planet many teams have studied, scored poorly, partly because one side of it never faces its star. [26]