Varda Space Industries: Successful space capsule return brings hope for advanced HIV drug

The company plans to construct space vehicles, solar farms and our first lunar colonies. The first step towards this goal is set to take place over the next ten years, with the creation of the inaugural space vehicle factory on Earth's orbit pencilled in for 2033.

The company, co-founded by an ex-SpaceX employee, has confirmed the W-1 capsule's safe journey from space back to Earth. This milestone marks one of many steps that will allow the enterprise to undertake more ambitious space exploration in the future. The capsule had been in orbit since 12 June 2023, and was returned to Earth on 22 February (touched down at a test site in Utah, USA).

Though the capsule's successful retrieval is a coup for the company, it is imperative to highlight the extremely precious cargo onboard the W-1. Valuable ritonavir crystals, synthesized in space, and used for HIV treatment, were also carried. This organic compound functions by inhibiting HIV protease in the body, impeding the enzyme from acting on the gag-pol predecessor. Consequently, the resulting HIV particles are structurally immature and unable to initiate another infection cycle.

It is worth noting the reasons Varda Space Industries chose to generate these crystals in the distinct conditions of outer space. Microgravity is conducive to the production of ritonavir, facilitating the creation of larger and – without a doubt – superior molecules than those produced on Earth.

Varda Space Industries' scientists believe that orbital laboratories might potentially generate superior treatments for a range of diseases in the future – even the most daunting ones. But before space can become a regular setting for drug manufacturing, a detailed analysis of the material returned to Earth is required.