LAS VEGAS — Varda Space Industries has signed an agreement to land spacecraft at an Australian range as it continues work to secure approvals to land its first spacecraft in Utah.
Varda announced Oct. 19 an agreement with Southern Launch, a spaceport operator based in Adelaide, Australia. Under the agreement, Varda’s spacecraft will land at the Koonibba Test Range northwest of Adelaide, a facility covering more than 23,000 square kilometers northwest of Adelaide design to host suborbital launches and spacecraft landings.
Varda is developing a series of spacecraft intended to test in-space manufacturing technologies, with an initial focus on pharmaceuticals. After the experiments are complete in orbit, a capsule will return the materials to Earth.
Southern Launch said Varda will use the range as soon as its second mission, scheduled for mid-2024. “In-space manufacturing is the next evolution of humanity’s industrial capacity,” Lloyd Damp, chief executive of Southern Launch, said in a statement. “We are excited to be partnering with Varda Space Industries to bring this emerging industry to Australia through the Koonibba Test Range.”
Varda launched its first spacecraft, W-Series 1, in June on SpaceX’s Transporter-8 rideshare mission in June. While the experiments on the spacecraft are complete, the company has been unable to bring the capsule back yet as it works to secure approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force, who operates the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) where the capsule will land.
The company had been working to bring the capsule back in early September but was unable to get Air Force approval or an FAA reentry license. “We got very, very close,” said Delian Asparouhov, co-founder of Varda, in an Oct. 20 interview.
There was no single specific issue that held up the reentry, he said. “It was ultimately a coordination problem amongst three different groups that had not…
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