California startup Varda Space has released raw footage of its capsule re-entering the atmosphere. The mission marked two major achievements: bringing the first pharmaceutical crystals made in orbit outside the International Space Station (ISS) back to the United States, and making Varda Space the first to land a capsule with the help of Rocket Lab Private companies on U.S. soil.
The 27-minute long video was uploaded to the company’s Youtube pagereveals the full journey of the company’s W-1 spacecraft as it separated in orbit from Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus and then tumbled toward Earth, with our planet and sun appearing in the frame with each dizzying spin .
Things really start to heat up about halfway through the video, as the capsule hurtles through the Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds above Mach 25 (30,000 kilometers per hour) before deploying a parachute to slow its descent before landing on the ground.
Varda Aerospace’s orbital factory landed at the Utah Test and Training Range on February 21 after eight months in orbit. This marks the first time a private company has landed a spacecraft on U.S. soil, but bringing these space medicines home won’t be easy.The mission was originally scheduled to return in September 2023, but refuse to return to earth Developed by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Although Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft that houses Varda’s capsule in orbit was originally designed to operate in space for four months, during the company’s time it successfully provided power, communications, ground control to the orbiting factory twice as long and attitude control. to secure their re-entry permit.
The FAA finally issued a reentry permit to Varda Aerospace in February, allowing the first in-orbit manufacturing experiment to return to Earth. In space, Varda’s Winnebago-1 mission developed crystals of the HIV drug ritonavir to test how it crystallizes in microgravity (and avoids defects caused by gravity). The mission marks the first time such a drug has been produced in orbit outside the International Space Station.
Now that the capsule has re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, the crystals will be analyzed to understand how they are affected by the microgravity environment. According to reports, protein crystals made in space are larger and more perfect than those made on earth. NASA.
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