On 13 May 2025 , a spinning top-shaped object plummeted through Earth's atmosphere from the dizzying heights of space, coming to rest on the russet sands of the Australian desert.

This was the W-3 capsule, the third of its kind launched by US space research company Varda Space Industries. For two months, it served as an experimental laboratory in low-Earth orbit, designed for the manufacture of new pharmaceuticals that can't be made on our planet.

Varda claims to be the first private company to synthesize a pharmaceutical product in space and – crucially – to return it to Earth intact, demonstrating that crystallization processes that occur in microgravity are preserved even after returning to Earth's gravitational environment.

"Crystal structures formed in microgravity have the poten

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