Rocket Lab USA, Inc. has completed and shipped a custom Photon spacecraft to Varda Space Industries. The spacecraft will provide power, communications, propulsion, and attitude control to Varda’s 120kg capsule that will produce pharmaceutical products in microgravity and return them to Earth. The Photon will also place Varda’s hypersonic re-entry capsule carrying finished pharmaceuticals on board on a return trajectory to Earth. Varda’s space-manufactured products are targeting small molecule therapeutics, and over time larger molecules and biologics. The Photon spacecraft was developed, manufactured, and tested at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Facility in Long Beach, California. With final assembly, integration, and test of the spacecraft complete, the fully integrated Varda spacecraft has been shipped to Vandenberg Space Force Base for launch on a commercial rideshare mission scheduled for no earlier than June 8. This Photon spacecraft is the first of four ordered by Varda to support in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing.
