Varda Space Industries

[high road]

So, this showed up on my news feed, but I can't find any trace of it anywhere else.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjfte_2_8XtAhXCGuwKHXYaBPoQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2020%2F12%2F08%2Fspace-manufacturing-startup-varda-incubated-at-founders-fund-emerges-with-9-million-in-funding%2F&usg=AOvVaw14CyevhA02CAP8bW6i1Bz7

A new startup without even a website with a 2 member team raises 9 million. Does anyone know if this is just an angel investor looking how to make a small fortune (by starting by a big one)? Fundraising to buy up one of the existing players? Or has Covid blown over and we're back to crazy funding levels being given to questionable entities?

[trimeta]

So, this showed up on my news feed, but I can't find any trace of it anywhere else.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjfte_2_8XtAhXCGuwKHXYaBPoQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2020%2F12%2F08%2Fspace-manufacturing-startup-varda-incubated-at-founders-fund-emerges-with-9-million-in-funding%2F&usg=AOvVaw14CyevhA02CAP8bW6i1Bz7

A new startup without even a website with a 2 member team raises 9 million. Does anyone know if this is just an angel investor looking how to make a small fortune (by starting by a big one)? Fundraising to buy up one of the existing players? Or has Covid blown over and we're back to crazy funding levels being given to questionable entities?

Somehow, the most questionable paragraph of that article is:

With now-established companies like SpaceX, Rocket Lab and Blue Origin, and upstarts like Relativity Space, SpinLaunch and the newly launched Aevum Space all driving down the cost of launching objects into space, the next wave of commercialization is coming.

Really, if you're listing off upcoming smallsat launch companies, SpinLaunch makes the shortlist?

[HMXHMX]

So, this showed up on my news feed, but I can't find any trace of it anywhere else.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjfte_2_8XtAhXCGuwKHXYaBPoQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2020%2F12%2F08%2Fspace-manufacturing-startup-varda-incubated-at-founders-fund-emerges-with-9-million-in-funding%2F&usg=AOvVaw14CyevhA02CAP8bW6i1Bz7

A new startup without even a website with a 2 member team raises 9 million. Does anyone know if this is just an angel investor looking how to make a small fortune (by starting by a big one)? Fundraising to buy up one of the existing players? Or has Covid blown over and we're back to crazy funding levels being given to questionable entities?

Good grief, Founder's Fund will believe anything!

[TrevorMonty]

So, this showed up on my news feed, but I can't find any trace of it anywhere else.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjfte_2_8XtAhXCGuwKHXYaBPoQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2020%2F12%2F08%2Fspace-manufacturing-startup-varda-incubated-at-founders-fund-emerges-with-9-million-in-funding%2F&usg=AOvVaw14CyevhA02CAP8bW6i1Bz7

A new startup without even a website with a 2 member team raises 9 million. Does anyone know if this is just an angel investor looking how to make a small fortune (by starting by a big one)? Fundraising to buy up one of the existing players? Or has Covid blown over and we're back to crazy funding levels being given to questionable entities?

Good grief, Founder's Fund will believe anything!

So they are going to build high value items in orbit and sell them on earth, good idea. What is high value item and where is years of development behind it?. May as well be selling precious metals from asteriods, at least they exist just small detail of extracting and returning to earth.

[john smith 19]

So they are going to build high value items in orbit and sell them on earth, good idea. What is high value item and where is years of development behind it?. May as well be selling precious metals from asteriods, at least they exist just small detail of extracting and returning to earth.

The upside is the product remains quite high value even if the supply increases, where as precious metals prices drop quite fast if big supplies become available.

IIRC the #1 for this is the mfg of exceptionally high purity glass fiber for repeater amplifiers with a fairly exotic recipe. They also talk about making organs (human I presume) in orbit. But not using additive mfg.

It has turned out that quite a lot of human organs consist of a cartilage framework with living cells. So now people are looking at ways to take those organs (the heart for one), wash the living cells out (using a sort of soap solution) and re-populate with stem cells grown from the person it's going to be transplanted into.

Why this would be easier in zero g than on earth I have no idea.

So very pure and exotic glass fiber and not-additively-manufactured human organs apparently.

[edzieba]

Why this would be easier in zero g than on earth I have no idea.

Gravity squishes fragile cell structures.
Artificially cultured skin is a good example: the cells themselves are not enormously difficult to grow in large sheets. What is exceptionally hard is taking that very fragile sheet of cells, and lifting it out of the growth medium and onto a patient without a shrivelling up into a worthless clump. For organ growth, you need a scaffold both to organise cellular growth into the desired 3D structure, and to support that structure under it's own weight. Microgravity eliminates the self-supporting requirement, so a more fragile framework can be used, which means more actual functional cell growth and less scaffold to remove.

[su27k]

Why is Varda being discussed in smallsat launchers thread? Seems to me they deserve their own thread...

[high road]

So they are going to build high value items in orbit and sell them on earth, good idea. What is high value item and where is years of development behind it?. May as well be selling precious metals from asteriods, at least they exist just small detail of extracting and returning to earth.

The upside is the product remains quite high value even if the supply increases, where as precious metals prices drop quite fast if big supplies become available.

IIRC the #1 for this is the mfg of exceptionally high purity glass fiber for repeater amplifiers with a fairly exotic recipe. They also talk about making organs (human I presume) in orbit. But not using additive mfg.

It has turned out that quite a lot of human organs consist of a cartilage framework with living cells. So now people are looking at ways to take those organs (the heart for one), wash the living cells out (using a sort of soap solution) and re-populate with stem cells grown from the person it's going to be transplanted into.

Why this would be easier in zero g than on earth I have no idea.

So very pure and exotic glass fiber and not-additively-manufactured human organs apparently.

Just to avoid confusion: ZBLAN production is not about making the feedstock purer (which is sort of what high end chips need micro gravity for) but to avoid chrystalization when stretching the feedstock to fibers.

The cartilage washing technique is not the process that could be done in zero-g, but an alternative that would be very hard to compete with.

[Danderman]

Why is Varda being discussed in smallsat launchers thread? Seems to me they deserve their own thread...

Because space launchers and space applications companies are lumped together in this topic about commercial space. Here's a vote for separating out launch companies from their customers into two separate topics.

Of course, I'm not volunteering to do any work to make that happen...

[zubenelgenubi]

Moderator: Please note that this new thread was splintered out (as requested) from the smallsat launchers thread.  Thus the references to the smallsat launchers thread.

[launchwatcher]

Varda may be a Tolkien reference: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Varda - one of the Valar; also known as Elbereth, "star-queen".

alternatively, Agnès Varda (1928-2019) was a Belgian film director

[high road]

It's a Tolkien reference. There are several other related startups I found in my search that refer to LOTR. One of the reasons this level of funding is very strange.

[StanBo]

Not really, Varda is a river in Bulgaria - and the founder of Varda Space Industries is a Bulgarian guy - @zebulgar who actually bears the name (his second name) of the founder of Bulgaria - Asparuh. He is also a principal at Founders Fund.

[high road]

Ah, and what is the link between a river and space based production? Versus the Maia that created the stars?

[edzieba]

It's a Tolkien reference, like other Founders Fund spinouts (e.g. Palantir, Anduril). They have a theme.

[brussell]

I saw this today:

Space start-up Varda, founded by SpaceX and Founders Fund veterans, aims to build factories in orbit
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/29/varda-space-raises-over-50-million-to-build-space-factories.htm

[brussell]

So, this showed up on my news feed, but I can't find any trace of it anywhere else.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjfte_2_8XtAhXCGuwKHXYaBPoQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2020%2F12%2F08%2Fspace-manufacturing-startup-varda-incubated-at-founders-fund-emerges-with-9-million-in-funding%2F&usg=AOvVaw14CyevhA02CAP8bW6i1Bz7

A new startup without even a website with a 2 member team raises 9 million. Does anyone know if this is just an angel investor looking how to make a small fortune (by starting by a big one)? Fundraising to buy up one of the existing players? Or has Covid blown over and we're back to crazy funding levels being given to questionable entities?

Good grief, Founder's Fund will believe anything!

Gary, I think Founder's Fund know what they're doing. It's a bit of frenzy now with the SPACs. Make noise, SPAC, and sell.

[high road]

So, this showed up on my news feed, but I can't find any trace of it anywhere else.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjfte_2_8XtAhXCGuwKHXYaBPoQFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2020%2F12%2F08%2Fspace-manufacturing-startup-varda-incubated-at-founders-fund-emerges-with-9-million-in-funding%2F&usg=AOvVaw14CyevhA02CAP8bW6i1Bz7

A new startup without even a website with a 2 member team raises 9 million. Does anyone know if this is just an angel investor looking how to make a small fortune (by starting by a big one)? Fundraising to buy up one of the existing players? Or has Covid blown over and we're back to crazy funding levels being given to questionable entities?

Good grief, Founder's Fund will believe anything!

Gary, I think Founder's Fund know what they're doing. It's a bit of frenzy now with the SPACs. Make noise, SPAC, and sell.

Whether that puts them on par with subprime quality overestimation in 'the great short' or rather the pump and dump schemes in 'the wolf of wall street' will only become clear in the future.

[su27k]

With Starship coming online, it's only reasonable someone wanted to give in space manufacturing a try, I think this is infinitely more interesting than reinventing smallsat launcher for the 151th time.

[high road]

With Starship coming online, it's only reasonable someone wanted to give in space manufacturing a try, I think this is infinitely more interesting than reinventing smallsat launcher for the 151th time.

Well, they're at least the third company to 'give it a try'. The two previous ones have pretty much disappeared with a grand total of one cubesat launched. Not sure if Starship would havs made much of a difference

Edit: space manufacturing, my bad. But to my knowledge, all space manufacturing startups predate Starship, and the one industry that has a high TRL doesn't benefit that much from Starship (assuming realistic per launch prices),  unless SpaceX expands its rideshare programme to make full use of Starship's capabilities (and thereby rendering space stations obsolete)

https://www.factoriesinspace.com/