"Varda's Space Capsule Returns to Earth with Space-Produced Pharmaceuticals Aboard"
Varda Space Industries' W-1 spacecraft successfully landed at the Utah Test and Training Range, capturing stunning reentry footage from separation in low Earth orbit to parachute deploy. The capsule, part of a Rocket Lab Photon spacecraft, was used to test in-space manufacturing technologies, producing ritonavir, an antiviral drug, in microgravity. Varda aims to make LEO more accessible to commercial industries and plans to share reentry data with NASA and the Air Force.