“We’re thrilled to have partnered with Rocket Lab on our first demonstration mission,” said Nicholas Cialdella, Head of Vehicles at Varda. By leveraging our deep vertical integration across Space Systems we’ve been able to deliver a high-quality spacecraft to Varda on a rapid timeline to accelerate their mission and we look forward to delivering many more.” “From technology demonstration missions in low Earth orbit to complex missions to the Moon, and now in-space manufacturing, Rocket Lab spacecraft are enabling innovation on orbit. “Congratulations to our Space Systems team and to Varda on the start of an incredibly exciting and important mission,” said Brad Clevenger, Vice President, Rocket Lab Space Systems. The spacecraft is the first of four ordered by Varda to support in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing, with the second spacecraft currently undergoing assembly, integration, and testing. Upon completion of the in-space manufacturing phase of Varda’s mission, Rocket Lab’s spacecraft will place Varda’s hypersonic re-entry capsule (carrying finished pharmaceuticals on board) on a return trajectory to Earth. Now successfully operating on orbit, the spacecraft will provide power, communications, propulsion, and attitude control to Varda’s 120kg capsule that will produce pharmaceutical products in microgravity and return them to Earth. The spacecraft was developed, manufactured, and tested at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Facility in Long Beach, California, and it incorporates Rocket Lab-designed and manufactured components and software including star trackers, propulsion system, reaction wheels, solar panels, flight software, radios, composite structures and tanks, and separation systems. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced its spacecraft for Varda Space Industries (“Varda”), a leading in-space manufacturing and hypersonic re-entry logistics company, is successfully operating on orbit after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base today on SpaceX’s Transporter-8 mission at 14:35 PDT (21:35 UTC).
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