From the moment we could look up to the skies, humanity has dreamt of what’s up there. And once we got there, how could we master it? 

And now that we’re there all the time, how can we use it?

In 2025, medical science has some fascinating — and pretty doable — ideas: manufacturing pharmaceuticals, 3D bioprinting of viable human organs for transplantation, and even in-vitro fertilization (IVF) — all in space. 

It turns out the low- or no-gravity environment of space is perfect for some precision processes not possible down here on Earth. Meanwhile, tech and space travel advances have made it all cost-effective (or it eventually will, at least).

Welcome to medicine’s “orbital economy.”

How We Got Here (Via Rocket, of Course)

“In 1983, the space economy was driven almost entirely by government programs — primarily US and Soviet — with Cold War tensions shaping civil, commercial, and military priorities,” said Kelli Kedis Ogborn, vice president of space commerce and entrepreneurship at Space Foundation. Since its founding as a global space nonprofit organization in 1983, Space Foundation has connected, educated, and supported the space community at large. “Over four decades, Space Foundation has become the hub of the global space community to accelerate growth, collaboration, and cross-sector understanding.”

The orbital economy has rapidly evolved and expanded since ‘83. At the start of 2021, Varda Space Industries was founded to make drug manufacturing in orbit a reality.

“Prior to Varda, there was no in-space manufacturing happening off the International Space Station (ISS),” said Adrian Radocea, Varda’s chief science officer. “That said, the larger ‘orbital economy’ includes all commercial entities that operate in orbit, like satellites for GPS, earth imaging, research and so on. This economy has been bolstered by the accessibility to space provided by reusable rockets in the past decade, which has brought costs down.”

This boost in growth is backed up in The Space Report, Space Foundation’s research and data analysis unit, which noted the global space economy hit a record $613 billion in 2024, with 149 launches during the first half of the year alone.

“Space touches nearly every sector — from agriculture and supply chains to telecom and healthcare,” said Ogborn. 

When it comes to healthcare, drug manufacturing in space has significant funding and, arguably, the most potential as multiple companies seek to take advantage of microgravity to develop drugs that are otherwise difficult to produce on Earth. According to an analyst at McKinsey & Company, the orbital drugmaking market could exceed $10 billion by 2030.

Why Make Drugs in Space?

It’s all about gravity — or lack thereof.

In space, the lack of gravity and forces dependent on gravity — such as convection, sedimentation, and buoyancy — allow crystals to grow bigger, much slower, and with more stability. This gives molecules more time to perfectly arrange themselves on the surface of the crystal. As a result, crystals grown in these conditions often exhibit fewer imperfections and higher uniformity and purity than those grown on Earth.

“The idea to process drugs in space isn’t new. Research showing that microgravity can impact crystallization has been done on the ISS for decades,” said Radocea. “However, when reusable rockets made orbit more accessible, it became possible to commercialize the science that had been proved on the ISS. That’s where Varda’s vehicles come in. We do not require humans or a space station to process our molecules as our capsules are autonomous.” 

Ken Savin, chief scientific officer at Redwire Space, echoed and expanded on this. Founded in 2020, Redwire Space’s infrastructure capabilities encompass and span across several sectors from biotech to agriculture. “The idea of manufacturing drugs in space has been batted around for a while,” he said. “The more specific application of microgravity for pharma and pharmaceuticals was described in the Skylab technical manual that came out in May of 1973, but that description, and the work that has followed up until 2017 or so, was really focused on growing the proteins that are the targets of drugs.”

“The hardware for our crystallization efforts was initially designed and [developed] before my time. But since I arrived at Redwire, the refinements and real application have been a focus,” he continued. “The system allows for the precise movement of fluids from one container to another, allowing us to, for example, take a solution with a material in solution and mix it with an antisolvent (a liquid in which the material is not soluble) to initiate a crystallization event.”

Varda is mostly focused on drug manufacturing, managing the end-to-end process: in other words, the launching and returning of drugs made in space.

“Here is the end-to-end process: Varda manufactures a vehicle, which has three components: an autonomous reactor, a capsule, and a satellite bus. Inside the capsule is the reactor, which will perform autonomous pharmaceutical processing,” said Radocea. The payloads vary depending on the needed reactor type for a certain molecule. The process involves very small amounts of active pharmaceutical ingredients; a large amount is unnecessary. 

The capsule then sits inside the satellite bus, which provides power and navigation. The vehicle launches into orbit aboard a SpaceX rocket. When the vehicle is in orbit, it begins the automated pharmaceutical processing. When that finishes — it can take days to weeks — the satellite bus moves into position in orbit and releases the capsule.

“The capsule then falls to earth on a planned trajectory that is licensed and approved at speeds exceeding Mach 25,” says Radocea. It pops a parachute and lands safely in the desert. The team recovers the capsule, takes the drugs back to home base, and ships them to the customer.

Varda’s W-Series are free-flying, self-sustaining orbital capsules capable of safely landing back on Earth. They’re also easier to mass-manufacture as they’re unmanned and only about a meter in diameter, optimizing them for more aggressive re-entry speeds. Overall they’re designed to be a cheaper, less complicated option compared to traditional spacecraft, especially those that involve ocean-based recoveries.

Read another way: every step designed with cost-effectiveness in mind.

Varda launched their first mission, W-1, in 2023, successfully returning the HIV/AIDS medication ritonavir. Since then, they’ve completed more successful launch and return missions, including an expanded pharmaceutical reactor on W-2. W-4 went up earlier this year. W-5 should launch before the end of 2025. 

Varda’s W-4 mission is the first to officially use a Varda-made satellite bus, marking the entirety of the mission — minus the launch — built and fully operated by Varda. Other firsts associated with this mission include a heatshield built in Varda’s factory, a vehicle operator license from the Federal Aviation Administration to use reenter capsules through 2029, and a new approach to drug processing.

In terms of other logistical costs, it depends. “Costs vary for payloads, so I can’t speak to that,” said Radocea. “And since we are providing one step of the drug development pipeline (as any other formulation company) and then returning the APIs to our customers, we can’t comment on pricing or cost of drugs when they go on the market.”

Drugs in Space … But Also Organs and IVF

Varda isn’t the only space company with big dreams: Redwire Space hopes to eliminate the long waitlists and grueling matching processes needed for organ donations altogether with their orbital 3D bioprinters. Again, it’s all about gravity: Microgravity makes it easier to stack layers of tissue and have them stay in the position they were placed.

“A lot still needs to be figured out for tissue prints and a big part of this is our ability to develop or print out vasculature,” said Savin. “In fact, I think the real big steps forward are going to be made here on Earth. For larger tissue or even organ level tissue development efforts, our ability to develop or print blood vessels will need to be worked out and this is potentially still years away from being done.”

Yet another company, SpaceBorn United, hopes to conceive a child in space by 2028 to lay the groundwork for future space settlements, or at least to prepare for what could happen as space exploration and tourism expands. 

Microgravity and partial gravity benefit IVF success rates by encouraging the creation of different survival proteins that enhance the process. “Our space minilab has a rotating device that enables studying various partial gravity levels for the most beneficial effects,” said Egbert Edelbroek, CEO of SpaceBorn United. “One of the key goals is to identify the beneficial biomarkers in space and add them to the growth medium on Earth.”

In addition to facilitating IVF and early embryo development, the minilab is also being used to accelerate the discovery and development of new drugs and therapies. “In low Earth orbit, our minilab can provide the unique opportunities of microgravity and partial gravity levels. In this environment, the minilab can improve drug delivery and stability, improve the understanding of drug responses and disease mechanisms, and create targeted treatments,” said Edelbroek. “SpaceBorn’s main mission is to improve reproductive biology on Earth and in space. This also includes improving drugs for fertility treatment.” 

Edelbroek says they’re making good progress. “We are on track to conceive human embryos in space before 2030,” he said. “How soon these embryos will be allowed to be reimplanted in the natural womb to grow into babies is not certain. Some renowned experts expect that can happen within a year after that mission. Others believe it can take longer. It’s part of our homework to figure this out in more detail.”

While drug manufacturing in space has far more funding behind it than space-based reproduction, it still has a long way to go. “Personally, I think the process of making large batches of pharmaceuticals in orbit and using them on Earth is years away for regulatory, logistical, and practical reasons,” said Savin. “It’s just a matter of time before drugs and other products produced in space are on our shelves and considered just another product we depend upon.”

Ogborn further emphasized the exciting potential driving microgravity research. “There has never been a time with more interest, activity, or engagement in space,” she said. “Over the next decade, we expect continued expansion as more companies and countries join the ecosystem and expand economic opportunity — driven by AI, lower launch costs, in-space infrastructure and a growing commercial ecosystem.”

As the orbital economy expands, we must prepare for all the ways these companies will shape and influence life here on Earth. That’s where Space Foundation comes in, fostering and establishing the common frameworks, interoperability, diverse capital sets, governance, and collaboration required to accommodate this growth.

“The space economy isn’t just about exploration,” says Ogborn. “It’s about the innovations, jobs, and technologies that improve life here on Earth. That’s something everyone can rally behind.”