Space Drugs Factory Denied Reentry To Earth (gizmodo.com) 66
After manufacturing crystals of an HIV drug in space, the first orbital factory is stuck in orbit after being denied reentry back to Earth due to safety concerns. Gizmodo reports: The U.S. Air Force denied a request from Varda Space Industries to land its in-space manufacturing capsule at a Utah training area, while the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not grant the company permission to reenter Earth's atmosphere, leaving its spacecraft hanging as the company scrambles to find a solution, TechCrunch first reported. A spokesperson from the FAA told TechCrunch in an emailed statement that the company's request was not granted at this time "due to the overall safety, risk and impact analysis."
Gizmodo reached out to Varda Space to ask which regulatory requirements have not been met, but the company responded with a two-word email that ominously read, "no comment." The California-startup did provide an update on its spacecraft through X (formerly Twitter). "We're pleased to report that our spacecraft is healthy across all systems. It was originally designed for a full year on orbit if needed," Varda Space wrote on X. "We look forward to continuing to collaborate w/ our gov partners to bring our capsule back to Earth as soon as possible." Varda Space Industries launched its first test mission on June 12, "successfully sending a 200-pound (90-kilogram) capsule designed to carry drug research into Earth's orbit," reported CNN. "The experiment, conducted in microgravity by simple onboard machines, aims to test whether it would be possible to manufacture pharmaceuticals in space remotely."
Gizmodo reached out to Varda Space to ask which regulatory requirements have not been met, but the company responded with a two-word email that ominously read, "no comment." The California-startup did provide an update on its spacecraft through X (formerly Twitter). "We're pleased to report that our spacecraft is healthy across all systems. It was originally designed for a full year on orbit if needed," Varda Space wrote on X. "We look forward to continuing to collaborate w/ our gov partners to bring our capsule back to Earth as soon as possible." Varda Space Industries launched its first test mission on June 12, "successfully sending a 200-pound (90-kilogram) capsule designed to carry drug research into Earth's orbit," reported CNN. "The experiment, conducted in microgravity by simple onboard machines, aims to test whether it would be possible to manufacture pharmaceuticals in space remotely."
If they are confident in its safety (Score:2)
Re: If they are confident in its safety (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: If they are confident in its safety (Score:2)
What if the FAA deems the satellite's candy too risky to come back to Earth and decides to have it struke with with a missile?
(That would be awesome!)
Should land it in Nevada (Score:2)
closer to the Project Wildfire laboratory in case something goes wrong, which of course, it will.
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Because Florida didn't wamt it either.
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Lawyers do seem to believe they're all powerful and I doubt the FAA ones are any different. Probably think if they say enough long words and write enough impressive looking documents the laws of nature will acquiese to their demands and leave the satellite up there.
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True, but an uncontrolled re-entry at some unknown point in the future isn't going to do Varda any good. And if Varda (based in southern California) ever wants to get their hands on the contents of that capsule, they'll need to either 1) satis
Re:What goes up must come down (Score:4, Interesting)
One would assume its water proof and floats with a transponder just in case re-entry goes wrong, so they could bring it down in international waters and in theory go pick it up assuming they could find a boat to do it.
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And then what do they do with it? It's a bit like stealing the Mona Lisa at that point: sure you have something of tremendous value, but if you can never sell or reveal it, is it actually worth anything?
It's highly likely that if they try to bring it back to their U.S. facilities, they'l
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I'm sure plenty of countries would be quite happy to host it. The US doesn't have jurisdiction over the entire planet you know.
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The US doesn't have jurisdiction over the entire planet you know
They do on people who claim to be citizens of their country. That's what extradition is. And while this might have research value in it, it absolutely does not have irking the US value to it. Politicians are shitty are estimating scientific value but they're the ones who make the call on extradition requests. So I mean, shit, if that's the kind of folks someone wants to roll the dice with, so be it. And let us not forget the other kinds of options available to countries, like where they ship you off bu
Re:What goes up must come down (Score:4, Funny)
True, but an uncontrolled re-entry at some unknown point in the future isn't going to do Varda any good.
I can imagine the thinly-concealed entertainment behind Varda being able to write a condolence note to the FAA like "Pursuant to your denial of re-entry permission, Varda filed a quitclaim on the capsule and shut down all of its systems, resulting in its uncontrolled re-entry as its orbit decayed naturally. We are sorry that the capsule struck FAA headquarters during its re-entry, but as the agency had denied re-entry permission, we were legally unable to redirect the vehicle to re-enter at a location of our choice and using the deceleration systems built into the capsule to allow its payload to be recovered. Varda will not be participating in the bidding for the contract to rebuild FAA headquarters, out of concern that it may be seen as a conflict of interest."
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Think the problem is the agency did not do their job, much like remote ID for drone. The paperwork did not get done, the regulators need grease or a kick in the ass.
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A disturbing number of people in various fields believe that the universe must obey their wishes
Mostly true. Although as it turns out, most of us are in politics.
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Lawyers do seem to believe they're all powerful and I doubt the FAA ones are any different. Probably think if they say enough long words and write enough impressive looking documents the laws of nature will acquiese to their demands and leave the satellite up there.
That’s a cool cheap shot at lawyers bro. In the real world however, you don’t get to work for FAA in a policy making role if you can’t wrap your head around the children’s expression, ”What goes up must come down.”. It says in TFA that they’re good for another year in orbit, if needs be, and they’ve already requested reconsideration of the decision from FAA.
The public domain is scant on details, this could be anything from a minor paperwork hangup to a seriou
Re: What goes up must come down (Score:2)
Yes, but at that time, if the FAA have not approved their plans, they will get whacked with a mishap investigation and likely huge fines, and losing any ability to get licensing for future satellites.
What goes up must come down (Score:2)
What must rise, must fall
And what goes on in your life
Is writing on the wall
What changed? (Score:5, Interesting)
I would have thought that, if the whole idea was to return the payload to earth, they would have sought the requisite permissions before spending the money building and launching.
In fact, they clearly were given permission to launch, so did the submitted mission profile not include the payload return?
Or has someone at the FAA recently watched "The Andromeda Strain"?
Re:What changed? (Score:5, Informative)
In fact, they clearly were given permission to launch, so did the submitted mission profile not include the payload return?
According to TFA ...
Varda’s capsule was originally scheduled for reentry on September 5 or 7, but the company’s application was denied on September 6, according to TechCrunch.
So it looks like it was scheduled for re-entry and permission was revoked. Obviously, it's going to come down sooner or later unless the FAA can revoke gravity ...
I'm cynically guessing that the drug crystals created effectively cure HIV and allowing it to return would cut into the huge profits pharmaceutical companies get from life-long treatments using their drugs.
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More likely they developed a new form of SpaceAIDS that'll kill us all.
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I'm cynically guessing that the drug crystals created effectively cure HIV
They are making an existing drug.
Re:What changed? The rules, in mid-flight. (Score:5, Informative)
So, they are trying to change the existing rules and precedents for capsule recovery between the scheduled launch and re-entry. That the reporters have to speculate on what the government's problem with the re-entry is - "maybe they want to land too many capsules?" - itself indicates that the government is making this up as they go. You can't do that with regulations. You can't change the rules mid-stride.
Unless they have a good reason to think the capsule would land in the middle of Provo instead the 500 square-mile recovery site, they need to let the company operate under existing precedent while they mull over what to change.
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"Gizmodo reached out to Varda Space to ask which regulatory requirements have not been met, but the company responded with a two-word email that ominously read, “no comment.”"
That's why the reporters "have to speculate on what the government's problem with the re-entry is".
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There doesn't seem to be any evidence that re-entry was ever granted, or that the rules changed mid-flight. As startups do, the company probably went ahead with the launch even without re-entry permission, because "we'll worry about that later."
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"So it looks like it was scheduled for re-entry and permission was revoked."
Actually, if I'm reading this right, they scheduled for re-entry before their application for it was processed, and then it was denied. It was not revoked, because it was never granted in the first place; they just said they were going to do it before permission was granted.
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I'm cynically guessing that the drug crystals created effectively cure HIV and allowing it to return would cut into the huge profits pharmaceutical companies get from life-long treatments using their drugs.
That is extreme cynicism. Even if you believe "big pharma" would do that, these guys aren’t part of "big pharma", nor is the USAF and FAA. If some company in "big pharma" making retrovirals did find the cure, they’d have ample incentive to release it, for the extreme short term boost in profits and stock prices/options they'd get. This is one area where the Next Quarter above all else mentality that drives modern day American business would work to our advantage.
As much as I hate "big pharma"
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And modded up as well!
What we could really use right now is a space drug to cure people dwelling in a dystopia of their own imagination.
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Denied, yes, but not necessarily revoked. As startups often do, they probably went charging ahead with the launch, saying "We'll worry about re-entry later."
Re:What changed? (Score:5, Informative)
It sounds like they launched while the re-entry license was still pending, I'm seeing articles from months ago about that. It seems they are applying under a new licensing scheme, so maybe that's why they are hitting a few kinks. Here's a quote from an Ars article;
"The FAA ensures commercial launch and re-entry operations don’t endanger the public. The FAA has licensed 53 commercial launches so far in 2023 for SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, Relativity Space, and ABL Space Systems. But it has only licensed five re-entries this year, all for SpaceX’s Dragon crew and cargo missions returning from the International Space Station.
Once its license is approved, Varda Space will become just the third company to receive a commercial FAA re-entry license and the first under streamlined commercial spaceflight regulations known as Part 450.
“We would be the first to operate within this new regulatory regime (for a re-entry),” Asparouhov said.
In-space manufacturing startup aces pharma experiment in orbit [arstechnica.com]
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It's awesome of you to share what YOU WOULD have thought, let alone what YOU THINK ......This thing can land anywhere on the other 99.5% of the planet without requiring a menial US government agency from saying yes
From what I read reagarding international space treaties, they can only land in the country that launched it unless there is an emergency then the rescue guidelines kick in.
Crack (Score:2)
Spacecraft or Clickbait. (Score:5, Insightful)
it is more the 90 kg spacecraft that hurts you.
Or the clickbait headline, for that matter.
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It's the SpaceAIDS.
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Mmmm... space drugs... (Score:2)
Won't someone think of the poor junkies ? There's got to be a huge market for space drugs !!!
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Direct orbital injection deliveries bypassing borders.... It's the DEA's worst nightmare!
man, the 80s were weird (Score:2)
"Hey, do we have any of that Plutonian Nyborg left?" [imgur.com]
And this IS a good thing. (Score:1)
Just read the highlights and the Air Force is correct to do this.
"...regulatory requirements have not been met...", "No Comment" to that one.
"The experiment, conducted in microgravity by simple onboard machines,..." OH NO. No AI?? No way Jose.
obvious question (Score:1)
If the FAA is refusing, I rather suspect there are lots of places in the world that would approve the landing for a nominal fee in the right pocket.
So what's really up here?
"no comment" (Score:2)
Deadname Twitter (Score:1, Offtopic)
No Comment (Score:1)
Gizmodo reached out to Varda Space to ask which regulatory requirements have not been met, but the company responded with a two-word email that ominously read, "no comment." https://gizmodo.com/space-phar... [gizmodo.com]
It's amazing people commenting on this story gloss over this important bit of information. Varda Space was asked what regulatory requirements were not met and Varda Space replied, "No comment".
That's pretty important. Varda Space should be able to tell you why. The fact that they are not te
because it was too high (Score:2)
So it's safer to wait for uncontrolled reentry? (Score:2)
Also would ignoring the reg be a civil or criminal matter?
Dumb article. What safety concerns? (Score:2)
I know it's gawker spawn and all that, but that's a pretty piss poor article even by gizmodo standards. The author should have included the specifics on exactly what these so-called safety concerns are. That's kind of Journalism 101.
After all, it's not like returning a payload capsule dropped from an orbiting satellite is anything new. We've been doing it since the Corona/Keyhole days back in the early '60s. So what's changed? What are Varda trying to do differently that presents a safety concern where p
The andromeda strain? (Score:2)
Body-snatching bean pods? What the hell do they have up there?
FAA doesn't have sovereignty over earth (Score:2)
They're the ones who should be brought down to earth !
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The FAA has jurisdiction over anything that lands in the US from outer space since it has to pass through airspace controlled by the FAA.
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Land it in Mexico and pay a coyote to wade across the Rio Grande with it.
Didn't pay enough bribes to the right people (Score:2)
This is the FAA is just holding out their hands for additional bribes/fees. I used to operate in this space.
Not all bribes are monetary; for most government officials, all they want is you to kowtow before them so they feel powerful.
I was the one assigned to take people from FDA out to dinner/resorts and butter them up with how wonderful and powerful and all-knowing they must be, and how lucky the US people are to have them protecting us unwashed peasants. Our medical device was approved the following wee
You need the FAA's permission to enter Earth's (Score:2)