Varda Space Industries

Recognized under Tier 9 — Extraterrestrial Healthcare, Varda Space Industries operates autonomous reentry capsules that manufacture pharmaceuticals in microgravity, having completed six capsule reentries to date. In May 2026 the company announced a collaboration with United Therapeutics to manufacture a biologic drug in orbit, targeting an initial flight in 2027 and in-orbit manufacturing operations the following year, and closed a $187 million Series C round to scale its orbital drug-crystallization work toward the roughly $210 billion monoclonal antibody market. Varda's capsules are designed for a monthly launch cadence by 2026, aimed at production economics that could make space-based manufacturing commercially viable rather than merely experimental. Reliable, repeatable in-space pharmaceutical production is directly relevant to Moon and Mars colonization: a crew or colony able to synthesize its own high-value medicines in orbit or on the surface is far less dependent on a finite stock shipped from Earth.