Latest news with #VardaSpace
Bloomberg
10-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Musk Says Grok to Make Tesla Debut
Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde discusses xAI's rollout of Grok 4 as Elon Musk says Grok will come to Tesla vehicles next week. Plus, we hear from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman as the AI talent war draws big pay packages. And Varda Space raises $187 million in a series C funding as they look towards advancing space medicine manufacturing. (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With Varda Space, leading Silicon Valley players make big bet on making drugs in space
Pharmaceutical scientists come up against a hard limitations here on Earth: gravity. Varda Space wants to change that. The company has raised a massive new round to turn space into the 'ultimate high ground' for the production of critical pharmaceutical components that can be brought back to Earth and used to make finished drugs. The company's $187 million Series C funding round announced Thursday will be used to build out a new laboratory facility that could transform Varda's orbital manufacturing process into a lucrative intellectual property-generating machine. The 10,000-square-foot-lab space in El Segundo, California will enable Varda pharmaceutical scientists to determine which biologics, like proteins and antibodies, are the most promising candidates for space-based crystallization. They will essentially perform 'the upfront work' to determine which assets are good candidates for an orbital mission, and what conditions to put them through in space, Varda co-founder Delian Asparouhov explained in an interview with TechCrunch. 'The company can go and do process engineering to understand at what temperatures and what conditions do the biologics crystallize ahead of time, so that when we get up in orbit the bioreactor knows what to do,' Asparouhov said. Varda is in conversation with leading pharmaceutical manufacturers that are struggling with particular problems, like crystallizing a particular ingredient, or issues with drug purity or shelf-life stability. The company's aim is to use its lab and orbital spacecraft to solve those problems, and in the process generate IP that can be patented and licensed to drugmakers. The lab will provide opportunity for the company to generate intellectual property that could prove valuable further down in the drug production life-cycle. Asparouhov said he expects to see a much greater volume of Varda patents filed as the lab comes online. The new funding was led by firms Natural Capital and Shrug Capital, with additional contribution from Peter Thiel, Lux Capital, Khosla Ventures and Caffeinated Capital. Asparouhov is a partner at Founders Fund, the firm Thiel co-founded twenty years ago, and he as previously a principal at Khosla. Varda has launched and returned three successful missions so far since 2023; the company anticipates completing four missions this year alone. For its first three missions, Varda housed its in-space manufacturing module inside a Rocket Lab-made spacecraft. The company has since taken all of the spacecraft manufacturing in-house. Varda built two spacecraft this year and aims to double that manufacturing cadence to four next year. The company also generates revenue by turning its spacecraft into a hypersonic flight testbed for the U.S. Department of Defense. Historically, hypersonic flight testing had a long lead time and sky-high prices, but Varda is proposing a launch-and-return cadence and the novel opportunity to recover tested material. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
10-07-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
With Varda Space, leading Silicon Valley players make big bet on making drugs in space
Pharmaceutical scientists come up against a hard limitations here on Earth: gravity. Varda Space wants to change that. The company has raised a massive new round to turn space into the 'ultimate high ground' for the production of critical pharmaceutical components that can be brought back to Earth and used to make finished drugs. The company's $187 million Series C funding round announced Thursday will be used to build out a new laboratory facility that could transform Varda's orbital manufacturing process into a lucrative intellectual property-generating machine. The 10,000-square-foot-lab space in El Segundo, California will enable Varda pharmaceutical scientists to determine which biologics, like proteins and antibodies, are the most promising candidates for space-based crystallization. They will essentially perform 'the upfront work' to determine which assets are good candidates for an orbital mission, and what conditions to put them through in space, Varda co-founder Delian Asparouhov explained in an interview with TechCrunch. 'The company can go and do process engineering to understand at what temperatures and what conditions do the biologics crystallize ahead of time, so that when we get up in orbit the bioreactor knows what to do,' Asparouhov said. Varda is in conversation with leading pharmaceutical manufacturers that are struggling with particular problems, like crystallizing a particular ingredient, or issues with drug purity or shelf-life stability. The company's aim is to use its lab and orbital spacecraft to solve those problems, and in the process generate IP that can be patented and licensed to drugmakers. The lab will provide opportunity for the company to generate intellectual property that could prove valuable further down in the drug production life-cycle. Asparouhov said he expects to see a much greater volume of Varda patents filed as the lab comes online. Techcrunch event Save up to $475 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The new funding was led by firms Natural Capital and Shrug Capital, with additional contribution from Peter Thiel, Lux Capital, Khosla Ventures and Caffeinated Capital. Asparouhov is a partner at Founders Fund, the firm Thiel co-founded twenty years ago, and he as previously a principal at Khosla. Varda has launched and returned three successful missions so far since 2023; the company anticipates completing four missions this year alone. For its first three missions, Varda housed its in-space manufacturing module inside a Rocket Lab-made spacecraft. The company has since taken all of the spacecraft manufacturing in-house. Varda built two spacecraft this year and aims to double that manufacturing cadence to four next year. The company also generates revenue by turning its spacecraft into a hypersonic flight testbed for the U.S. Department of Defense. Historically, hypersonic flight testing had a long lead time and sky-high prices, but Varda is proposing a launch-and-return cadence and the novel opportunity to recover tested material.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Human remains lost after memorial spaceflight capsule crashes into the sea
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A space capsule included on a recent SpaceX launch almost survived its decent back to Earth, so The Exploration Company is deeming their mission a "partial success". A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Transporter-14 rideshare mission June 23, sending 70 payloads from different customers into orbit. The satellites included cubesats and other spacecraft bound for low-Earth orbit, as well as two reentry capsule designed for recovery back on Earth. The first came from Varda Space — the company's fourth "Winnebago" series spacecraft designed to test first-of-its-kind on-orbit pharmaceutical manufacturing. Its mission is still underway. The second, Tranporter-14's largest payload and the last to be released, was European spacecraft manufacturer The Exploration Company's "Mission Possible" Nyx capsule, carrying remains contributed by loved ones through Celestis Memorial Spaceflights. Celestis offers various tiers of space memorial services that range all the way to launching remains into deep space. Their "Earth Rise" package includes launching DNA of customers' deceased loved ones (or even pets) into space and returning them to Earth. Unfortunately, their return this time around did not go as smoothly as planned. For their 25th launch, dubbed "The Perseverance Flight", Celestis paired with The Exploration Company's Mission Possible to carry its memorial payload to space and back aboard the Nyx capsule. At least that was the plan. Nyx performed nominally throughout its entire mission, all the way up until just minutes before its expected Pacific Ocean splashdown. "The capsule was launched successfully, powered the payloads nominally in-orbit, stabilized itself after separation with the launcher, re-entered and re-established communication after black out," the company wrote in an online update. For any spacecraft reentering through Earth's atmosphere, a period of communication blackout occurs as intense friction with surrounding air forms a layer of superheated plasma around a vessel's hull. Following the most intense stages of falling back from orbit, communications are typically reestablished during a ship's last stretch to landing. Nyx's return, up to that point, was no different — until it was. The Exploration Company's capsule encountered an anomaly shortly after reestablishing communications. "[Nyx] encountered an issue afterwards, based on our current best knowledge, and we lost communication a few minutes before splash down. We are still investigating the root causes and will share more information soon," the company said in their update. Nyx's parachute failed to deploy, according to a later statement form Celestis. "The parachute system failed, resulting in the Nyx capsule impacting the Pacific Ocean and dispersing its contents at sea," they said. In short, the capsule and its contents plummeted into the drink. "Though we currently believe that we cannot return the flight capsules, we hope families will find some peace in knowing their loved ones were part of a historic journey, launched into space, orbited Earth, and are now resting in the vastness of the Pacific, akin to a traditional and honored sea scattering," Celestis said. The Exploration Company echoed that sentiment. "We apologize to all our clients who entrusted us with their payloads," their update reads. Mission Possible was The Exploration Company's second foray into space, and the first for its Nyx capsule, which they are designing with the intent of transporting crew and cargo to and from LEO and beyond. And they aren't letting the snag at the end of the endeavor slow them down. "We have been pushing boundaries in record time and cost. This partial success reflects both ambition and the inherent risks of innovation. Leveraging the technical milestones achieved yesterday and the lessons we will extract from our ongoing investigation, we will then prepare to re-fly as soon as possible," the company said.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Should You Buy Rocket Lab While It's Below $27?
Rocket Lab stock sold off after earnings this month, but quickly bounced back. At $26 a share or so, the stock has momentum from press releases -- but costs significantly more than it did before missing earnings. Rocket Lab stock could go on sale soon, if forced to delay its upcoming Neutron rocket launch. 10 stocks we like better than Rocket Lab USA › Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) is on a roll. Recovering quickly from its first-quarter earnings miss earlier this month, shares of the manufacturer of small satellites and the small rockets to launch them zoomed higher after the company issued a series of press releases. Among other things, Rocket Lab has announced: A contract to experiment with point-to-point cargo transportation by rocket for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). A NASA contract to launch the Aspera spacecraft to "study the formation and evolution of galaxies and provide new insights into how the universe works." Another successful synthetic aperture radar (SAR) launch for Japan's Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS). And a third launch and recovery of a W-class space capsule for "orbital pharmaceuticals" company Varda Space Industries. At a price just under $26 today, Rocket Lab stock has now bounced back so high that it costs 9% more than it did before the earnings miss on May 8. But the stock's also still 20% below an intraday high set back in January. With momentum seemingly firmly on its side, investors may now be wondering: Should you buy Rocket Lab stock here at $26, before it rockets even higher? And the answer is a definite maybe. (Although I'm leaning toward no.) Don't get me wrong. I happen to think Rocket Lab is a great company, and with great long-term prospects. I just don't think you should overpay to own a piece of those prospects. If you look out five years, analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence anticipate that Rocket Lab will grow into a solidly profitable company, doing $3.5 billion in annual revenue, and translating $1.1 billion of that revenue into real profit according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Viewed from this perspective, Rocket Lab stock that costs $12 billion today (or just under $26 per share) looks pretty attractive, costing just 11 times earnings. The problem is, these are forward earnings. Very forward earnings. And they might not arrive either in the quantity, or according to the time frame, that analysts predict. (Case in point: In 2022, these same analysts were forecasting Rocket Lab would earn its first profit in 2025. But three years later, opinions have changed -- and Rocket Lab is forecast to lose $193 million this year.) Meanwhile, valued on the facts as they stand today, Rocket Lab has a meaningless earnings multiple due to having negative earnings. And it costs more than 27 times trailing-12-month sales (which is about 6 times the average valuation on unprofitable space stocks). This, then, is my first argument for not buying Rocket Lab stock today: It may look cheap based on hopes and dreams for what it might earn five years from now. Based on its performance to date, however, the stock looks expensive. My second reason for saying Rocket Lab stock is not a buy, though, is better news: Rocket Lab stock may cost too much today, but there's plenty of reason to expect it will become cheaper before long. Why is that? Right now, with no earnings to hang a P/E valuation on, Rocket Lab acts a lot like a momentum stock: shooting higher on positive press releases, only to turn around and plunge on negative earnings reports. Simply put, its stock price is driven by headlines, both good and bad. Now, the biggest good headline for Rocket Lab at present is the prospect that its new Neutron reusable rocket will launch later this year, maybe as early as July, but probably not. I believe this good news is priced into the stock already. And if I'm right, this means that the biggest upcoming catalyst will most likely be new news that Neutron will in fact launch on a date later than it's expected to. A launch delay in Neutron, I believe -- even a small one -- might spook momentum investors and lower Rocket Lab's stock price, without at the same time materially changing the company's growth prospects, or making the stock less attractive to long-term investors. Were I in the market to buy some more Rocket Lab shares (in addition to the shares I already own), this is the catalyst I'd be looking for: negative news that scares off momentum investors, without materially damaging the business. I might not buy Rocket Lab stock at $26. But if such a catalyst drives the stock down into the teens or lower, then I probably would buy more Rocket Lab stock. Before you buy stock in Rocket Lab USA, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Rocket Lab USA wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $640,662!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $814,127!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 963% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 168% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Rich Smith has positions in Rocket Lab USA. The Motley Fool recommends Rocket Lab USA. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Buy Rocket Lab While It's Below $27? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
