Blocked by its own American government, Varda now looks to Australia
Because the U.S. military as well as the FAA refused to issue Varda a license to land its recoverable capsule from orbit — carrying actual HIV pharmaceuticals that can only be manufactured in space — the company is now negotiating with a private range in Australia for landing rights.
The agreement between Varda and Southern Launch, a company based in Adelaide, Australia, would allow Varda’s second mission, scheduled to launch in mid-2024, to reenter and land at the remote Koonibba Test Range. “We plan, with the Koonibba Test Range, to conduct a reentry operation as soon as our second orbital mission, which the launch and reentry would be in mid-2024,” [Delian Asparouhov, the company’s chairman, president, and co-founder,] told Ars.[emphasis mine]
In other words, Varda’s first launched capsule, in space now but unable to land, has become a total loss, simply because the U.S. government blocked its return. The HIV drugs it produced while in orbit will never become available for sale. Nor will Varda be able to use it to demonstrate the returnable capability of its orbiting capsule.
Such a loss could easily destroy a startup like Varda, which is certainly not yet in the black as it develops its technology.
What is most disgusting about this blocking is that at the same time the military and the FAA refused Varda permission to land, those agencies had no problem letting NASA drop its OSIRIS-REx sample capsule in the same landing range in Utah.
Right now our federal government has become the enemy of the American people, doing whatever it can to stymie them, whether by intention or by incompetence.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Because the U.S. military as well as the FAA refused to issue Varda a license to land its recoverable capsule from orbit — carrying actual HIV pharmaceuticals that can only be manufactured in space — the company is now negotiating with a private range in Australia for landing rights.
The agreement between Varda and Southern Launch, a company based in Adelaide, Australia, would allow Varda’s second mission, scheduled to launch in mid-2024, to reenter and land at the remote Koonibba Test Range. “We plan, with the Koonibba Test Range, to conduct a reentry operation as soon as our second orbital mission, which the launch and reentry would be in mid-2024,” [Delian Asparouhov, the company’s chairman, president, and co-founder,] told Ars.[emphasis mine]
In other words, Varda’s first launched capsule, in space now but unable to land, has become a total loss, simply because the U.S. government blocked its return. The HIV drugs it produced while in orbit will never become available for sale. Nor will Varda be able to use it to demonstrate the returnable capability of its orbiting capsule.
Such a loss could easily destroy a startup like Varda, which is certainly not yet in the black as it develops its technology.
What is most disgusting about this blocking is that at the same time the military and the FAA refused Varda permission to land, those agencies had no problem letting NASA drop its OSIRIS-REx sample capsule in the same landing range in Utah.
Right now our federal government has become the enemy of the American people, doing whatever it can to stymie them, whether by intention or by incompetence.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Has to do with drugs and homelessness but its related: You will suspend your common sense.
RIGHT AT YOUR FRONT DOOR
“If you read this story about a California billionaire who is willing to lease to the city a parcel of land for the price of $1.00 a year for 5 years. Why is he doing that? In order that the city can build a temporary tiny house community of 150 small individual living units for a price of $18 million dollars. ”
“And what is wrong with that? ”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/compassion-kills-right-at-your-own-front-door
Their paperwork said HIV. The idiots in charge of the FAA and FCC took one look and thought HIV!!!!!!
“Such a loss could easily destroy a startup like Varda, which is certainly not yet in the black as it develops its technology.”
The government has the unlimited funding of American’s taxes to use against us.
I don’t get the mindset of people who spend their lives screwing other people.
One problem is we’re taking in so many immigrants (legal and illegal) that they don’t assimilate into America’s Christian ethics based culture. It’s not just Americans who hate America that are populating government jobs, it’s also immigrants from third world hell holes where corruption and bribery are the norm.
In this 90 second video Senator Josh Hawley asks Jigar H. Shah, director of the DOE loan programs office, if he doesn’t see a problem getting paid to speak at conferences by people who are applying for DOE loans. Shah’s blank stare shows he doesn’t comprehend what Hawley is talking about.
“Corrupt Department of Energy Official Melts Under the Heat of Josh Hawley’s Questions”
https://rumble.com/v3qjpcb-corrupt-department-of-energy-offical-melts-under-the-heat-of-josh-hawleys-q.html
Glad they took my suggestion. :P
James Street: Hawley was wrong. He was either not understanding what Shah was saying, or was purposely misunderstanding.
Shah didn’t say industry people paid him to attend, he was saying that at some conferences you have to pay registration fees to attend. Normally, it is my understanding that the government pays those fees for government employees.
That the conservative media has tried to make a point of this moment at this hearing discredits them.
A lot of the folks behind the border are good Roman Catholics, and I don’t blame them for wanting to come here.
I get it from both sides when I say that disciplining a child, maintaining a border or walking a picket line are all unpopular-but necessary.
Their paperwork said HIV. The idiots in charge of the FAA and FCC took one look and thought HIV!!!!!!
Pzatchok, perhaps they should have put “COVID vaccines'” on the paperwork?
What am I thinking? An upstart startup doesn’t have the political connections of Big Pharma, so it wouldn’t matter what they put on the paperwork.
At the close of the post Robert observes:
“Right now our federal government has become the enemy of the American people, doing whatever it can to stymie them, whether by intention or by incompetence.”
This is hardly a novel conclusion, and more and more Americans are finally beginning to understand that The Deep State / The Swamp / The Blob* / or simply The Powers That Be in Washington do not have their best interests at heart. Likewise, the goals and objectives of the new administrative state** are antithetical to anything like the kind of limited representative government — the American Republic — that the Founders envisioned. Finally, and this is critical, we are literally in a cultural civil war, an *existential* battle, for our survival as a free people, and the radical left has no illusions about this.
Unhappily, as we saw playing out in the House of Representatives the last two weeks, many Republicans still have no inkling that we are in such a war for our survival, or, as seems likely, they, too, are fed and nourished by the Blob and see no reason to fight against it. Why would they? Moreover, until Robert’s comment sinks in and it is grasped by a working majority of people in Congress, we will at best be fighting a protracted, rear guard action to delay the inevitable. The Deep State / The Swamp / The Blob / The Powers That Be in Washington are our sworn ENEMY, and we had better start acting like we really believe this.
*For more commentary on the Washington Blob, see Jim Kunstler’s latest column at https://kunstler.com/
**The agenda of the Biden Administration, as it is being deployed, would seem to be almost identical to the wish list of the World Economic Forum (“You will own nothing and eat bugs”), all couched in the language of Critical Theory. For anyone who doesn’t “get” the agenda of the WEF, just take a look at North Korea, perhaps the “greenest” (and by their lights, best governed) state on the planet.
Varda and SpaceX are but the first:
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-signatures-space-age-spacecraft-metals.amp
Also, I think nefarious forces are at work within New Space in the same way wokesters got inside corporate America:
Let me give you an example:
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/astronomers-say-new-telescopes-should-take-advantage-of-starship-paradigm/
The typical knee-jerk libertarian response would be to nod along, forgetting that big scopes were pushed by Ares V advocates:
https://phys.org/news/2007-06-big-space-telescopes.amp
SLS supporters made Europa Clipper happen, and were stabbed in the back. If a telescope is made by one NASA center, they should show a little respect and ride on the offering of another.
MSFC does rockets…same as SpaceX.
But what is the NASA center filled with FAA/Fish & Wildlife types?
That’s Goddard…home to East Coast types who would love to use sats to harass fishermen and blackmail industry on fudged emissions detections.
So while you might be cheering them as they stab Marshall in the back…that’s the same knife held to the throat of Varda and SpaceX. They want both SLS **and**Starship to die people—so don’t give them any succor.
Robert may not want tax dollars to go to MSFC projects…maybe I don’t want mine going to Goddard’s.
Barbara Mikulski was a bigger threat than Shelby.
And now we have a new NASA center expansion:
https://spacenews.com/university-of-california-and-nasa-ames-unveil-plans-for-2-billion-berkeley-space-center/
And what tripe will come out of that place?
Stories like this:
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-signatures-space-age-spacecraft-metals.amp
For all its warts Marshall got a spacecraft to the Moon twice now.
My guys are about hardware.
You let the enemies of cosmic expansion knife us, you will just be the next target.
Jim Hillhouse of AmericaSpace said that Old Space and New Space need to praise and support one another.
Now you know WHY.