{"city":"El Segundo","name":"Varda Space Industries","slug":"varda-space-industries","facts":[{"date":"2026-09-14","type":"deployment","value":"W-6 capsule successfully reentered after carrying NASA and government payloads","source":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-09-14","type":"senior_hire","value":"Appointed biopharma R&D leader Mikael Dolsten to its board","source":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-09-14","type":"deployment","value":"Successfully reentered its W-6 capsule after carrying NASA and government payloads","source":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-09-14","type":"partnership","value":"Collaboration with United Therapeutics on microgravity-enabled treatments for rare pulmonary disease","source":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-09-14","type":"senior_hire","value":"Appointed biopharma R&D leader Mikael Dolsten to the board","source":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-09-14","type":"customer","value":"NASA and government payloads","source":"Varda Space Industries"}],"peers":[{"name":"Space Forge","rank":98,"slug":"space-forge","score":"64"}],"stage":"Private","state":"California","aliases":["Varda","Varda Space Industries","Varda Space"],"country":"United States","domains":[{"why":"Varda develops and operates W-series spacecraft for manufacturing and pharmaceutical processing in microgravity, then returns the resulting products to Earth.","list":"Space 100","rank":25,"tier":"member","layer":"Infrastructure","total":80,"domain":"Space","scores":{"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":9,"firepower":8,"commercial":5,"deployment":8,"production":6,"technology":10},"edition":"November 2026","segment":"In-space manufacturing"}],"founded":2020,"signals":[{"date":"2026-10-13","header":"Varda has two spacecraft in orbit and plans to add eight more.","outlet":"Space.com"},{"date":"2026-09-30","header":"Varda raised $251 million in Series D funding at a $1.6 billion valuation.","outlet":"Payload"},{"date":"2026-09-14","header":"Varda Space Industries appointed biopharma R&D leader Mikael Dolsten to its board.","outlet":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-09-14","header":"Varda Space Industries successfully reentered its W-6 capsule after carrying NASA and government payloads.","outlet":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-09-14","header":"Varda Space Industries and United Therapeutics launched a collaboration on microgravity-enabled treatments for rare pulmonary disease.","outlet":"Varda Space Industries"},{"date":"2026-08-04","header":"Varda Space Industries completed the W-6 mission landing in South Australia.","outlet":"SpaceNews"}],"website":"https://www.varda.com","category":"Space · Infrastructure","categories":[{"name":"In-space manufacturing","domain":"Space","parent":"Space · Infrastructure"}],"last_round":null,"updated_at":"2026-10-14T10:00:49.883+00:00","facts_total":72,"positioning":"Varda Space Industries (El Segundo, CA) runs a dual model as an orbital pharmaceutical processor and a hypersonic flight testbed for the US Department of War, and has flown six missions with six successful reentries (W-1 in February 2024 through W-6 in May 2026, which validated autonomous hypersonic navigation). It has raised about $325M (including a $187M Series C in July 2025) plus AFRL Prometheus funding, and is scaling production for higher cadence. Pharma revenue start, the W-7+ manifest, and current funding are open.","sub_category":"In-space manufacturing","signals_total":30,"url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/varda-space-industries","title":"Varda Space Industries · space, El Segundo, California, United States · scores, facts and signals · Frontier Tech Intelligence","description":"Varda develops and operates W-series spacecraft for manufacturing and pharmaceutical processing in microgravity, then returns the resulting products to Earth. Space 100 rank 25 (score 80) 30 signals and 72 facts with sources.","publisher":"Frontier Tech Intelligence (Future Frontiers, a trade name of Essential Cognition Inc.)","note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}