JD Durkin: Will Bruey. He is CEO and Co-Founder of Varda Space Industries. Will, nice to have you here on the show. Happy Friday, my friend. Got to talk about this. Raised $250 million. You’re now looking at a $1.6 billion value overall. What does that new capital help Varda to unlock? What could you now do, Will, you could not previously do?
Will Bruey: Well, thanks for having us, JD. And you know what’s funny is that’s actually the second-best thing that’s happened this week. Yesterday, we used some of that capital to launch two commercial reentry vehicles.
And there’s a lucky 26-year-old engineer at Varda right now that became the first human to fly multiple reentry vehicles simultaneously. And so we’ve already put a lot of that capital to use, both for our government partners and our pharma partners.
JD Durkin: Okay, wait, real quick. Can you tell me more about that? Who is this person selected, and what did the process look like? That sounds awesome.
Will Bruey: Yeah. So we have a mission control, like many aerospace companies. Ours is unique in the fact that not only are we flying satellites, but we’re flying reentry vehicles back to Earth.
And that’s a very unique technology. It’s what enables both of our commercial line of business and our government line of business. And like most mission control, there’s one single point of contact where the buck stops for a single flight.
And so it’s just kind of cool that we’ve set that record for humanity, or that first, if you will, albeit a minor footnote in history, just this week.
JD Durkin: Okay, it’s not kind of cool. It is very cool. Thank you for letting me know.
You’ve said before the first product made in space for use here on terra firma will be of a pharmaceutical nature. Why are drugs such a natural fit for manufacturing in space?
Will Bruey: Yeah, it’s actually quite simple. From first principles, when you manufacture something in orbit, you’re in freefall and you’re experiencing low gravity, which is otherwise impossible on Earth.
And so that low gravity changes the chemical outcome of chemical systems. And so we have a unique way to manipulate chemicals. And the most expensive chemical systems on Earth that also have a large market are drugs.
And so that’s why it’s abundantly clear, not just because of Varda, but just from first principles, that a pharmaceutical will be the first product manufactured in space to be used on Earth regularly.
JD Durkin: You’re launching W-8 and W-9 together. First of all, for people unfamiliar, what are those things? And why is that shift from individual missions to much more of a kind of fleet-based operation such a big milestone for you?
Will Bruey: Oh, yeah, it’s huge for us. So what these vehicles are, they’re about the size of a refrigerator. And you can think of them as a bioreactor that’s flying around space and has the ability to fly home. And that’s the unique aspect.
On these two missions, we have two government customers because flying through the atmosphere at Mach 25, that’s 25 times the speed of sound, is also a unique capability.
And so we offer that environment exposure to test systems for the United States government and other defense customers. And then in a couple of weeks, we’ll launch a third vehicle that will be in orbit, and that one will have a cancer drug on board, where we’re looking to increase solubility by manufacturing it in microgravity.
JD Durkin: How hard is it to scale all these things from proving it can work to doing it routinely? What does that process look like?
Will Bruey: It looks like dragging your face across the floor painfully until the production line comes to life after the course of years to almost a decade. But it’s a ton of fun.
It’s absolutely the adventure of a lifetime for aerospace engineers to see something from an idea that’s just been proven on the International Space Station, and it’s clearly doable. And now all we have left to do is engineer the solutions, build the reentry fleet.
It’s an awesome engineering challenge and one that’s kind of our life’s work here at Varda.
JD Durkin: Well, this was an awesome interview. Unfortunately, I’m out of time. My best to you and your team. Please don’t drag any faces on the floor in your ongoing missions.
Will Bruey, CEO and Co-Founder of Varda Space Industries. Thanks, Will. Take it easy.
