Varda Space’s W-Series 1 satellite capsule successfully returned to Earth with the results of experiments to create ritonavir to combat HIV infections. The samples obtained in microgravity conditions will be studied by employees of the pharmaceutical company Improved Pharma.
The W-1 capsule landed at a test site located in Utah. Before that, she spent eight months in low Earth orbit. The Varda Space probe was used to conduct experiments to create crystals of the drug ritonavir, used to combat HIV.
It is argued that protein crystals grown in space conditions are capable of forming more advanced structures compared to those produced on Earth, where gravity negatively affects the process of their formation.
Varda Space Industries equipped the craft with a camera to document its return to Earth. The video shows the capsule breaking through the atmosphere at a speed of 30,500 km/h. No rendering or processing. Only 28 minutes of complete fragment from the moment of W-1’s separation to entry into the planet’s atmosphere and subsequent landing.
The 90 kg capsule was launched in the summer of 2023 as part of the SpaceX Transporter-8 mission and put into orbit on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Now samples of ritonavir will be analyzed by employees of the pharmaceutical company Improved Pharma from Indiana.