Delian Asparouhov on Space Manufacturing, Microgravity, and Building the First Space Factories
In this episode of the Founders in Arms podcast, we sit down with Delian Asparouhov — co-founder of Varda Space Industries and partner at Founders Fund — to discuss space manufacturing, the emerging space economy, and why producing pharmaceuticals in orbit could become one of the first profitable industries in space.
Delian explains how microgravity changes chemical processes, why reusable rockets unlocked entirely new business models in space, and how Varda is building spacecraft that manufacture materials in orbit and return them to Earth.
This conversation explores the economics of space manufacturing, the future of space infrastructure, and what it will take to build a true space civilization.
This conversation dives deep into:
Space manufacturing and microgravity chemistry
Why pharmaceuticals are ideal for orbit manufacturing
The economics of launching and returning products from space
Varda’s spacecraft and re-entry capsule design
The future of the space economy
Building permanent human settlements in orbit and on the Moon
If you're building in deep tech, aerospace, hardware startups, or frontier technologies, this episode is packed with insights into how founders identify new industries before they exist.
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to space manufacturing
The hosts introduce Delian Asparouhov and his company Varda Space Industries, which is building spacecraft designed to manufacture materials in orbit and return them to Earth.
The core idea: microgravity changes how materials form, creating opportunities to manufacture products that cannot be produced efficiently on Earth.
(03:12) Delian’s path from VC to space founder
Delian explains how he originally planned to pursue robotics and aerospace academically before shifting toward startups and venture capital.
While working as an investor at Founders Fund, he began investing in aerospace companies and realized that the rapidly falling cost of space launch was opening entirely new markets.
That insight eventually led him to start Varda.
(08:28) Why venture investing helped build a space startup
Spending several years investing in space companies gave Delian a deep understanding of:
The space industry supply chain
Government regulation
Launch infrastructure
Economic use cases for space
This perspective helped him identify which ideas were realistic and which were still too early.
(11:01) Why economics determines whether space industries succeed
Delian argues that every successful frontier expansion in human history required a clear economic incentive.
Examples include:
The California Gold Rush
Early global trade empires
Colonial settlements
Without economic activity, long-term human presence in space is unlikely.
(13:06) Why space manufacturing is the most viable near-term opportunity
Many space business ideas exist — asteroid mining, lunar resource extraction, space habitats — but most require massive infrastructure first.
Manufacturing in low Earth orbit is simpler because:
It stays close to Earth
It avoids complex logistics
Products can be returned quickly
This makes it the most realistic near-term industrial application.
(18:00) What microgravity actually changes in manufacturing
Microgravity fundamentally changes fluid behavior and chemical reactions.
On Earth, gravity causes convection currents that influence how materials form.
In orbit:
Liquids and gases behave differently
Heat disperses differently
Crystal structures can form more uniformly
These differences create opportunities for manufacturing materials with superior properties.
(23:04) Pharmaceutical manufacturing in space
One of the most promising applications is drug manufacturing.
In space, pharmaceutical crystals can form much more uniformly, which affects:
Drug stability
How medicines dissolve in the body
Delivery methods
This could transform certain drugs that currently require hospital infusions into treatments that patients can take at home.
(28:56) Why nobody commercialized this earlier
Experiments on the International Space Station demonstrated these effects years ago.
However, the ISS was not designed for commercial manufacturing.
Key challenges included:
Limited capacity
Government control
Lack of commercial infrastructure
No scalable return-to-Earth systems
Varda aims to solve these problems by building dedicated manufacturing spacecraft.
(33:02) Why re-entry is the hardest engineering challenge
Bringing products back from space turns out to be extremely difficult.
Re-entry capsules must survive:
Extreme heat
High G-forces
Plasma formation around the vehicle
These conditions occur as spacecraft re-enter Earth's atmosphere at speeds around Mach 25.
(38:54) Why pharmaceuticals are the perfect space product
Space manufacturing requires extremely high value per kilogram.
Pharmaceuticals are ideal because the active ingredients are incredibly small and valuable.
For example, the active pharmaceutical ingredient used for millions of doses may only weigh a few kilograms.
This makes the economics viable even with expensive launches.
(41:41) How Varda plans to scale the business
Varda’s first missions use small satellites that manufacture drugs and return them to Earth.
Each mission brings back roughly 40–50 kg of materials.
Over time the company plans to:
Increase launch frequency
Reduce mission costs
Reuse spacecraft components
This could eventually support multiple launches per year.
(49:24) When humans might work in space factories
Today everything is automated.
However, Delian believes that as space manufacturing grows, humans will eventually maintain and repair these facilities.
Possible timeline:
2029–2035 for early human-serviced space factories.
(55:46) What the space economy might look like in 10 years
Delian predicts that within a decade we may see:
100+ humans living in orbit
Permanent lunar bases
Large commercial infrastructure in low Earth orbit
These developments would mark the beginning of a true space economy.
Key Takeaways for Founders
Economic incentives drive frontier expansion
Sustainable space infrastructure will only exist if businesses can generate real revenue.
Microgravity unlocks new manufacturing possibilities
Unique physics in space allows materials to form in ways that are impossible on Earth.
Pharmaceuticals are the first viable space product
Their extremely high value per kilogram makes launch economics feasible.
Infrastructure creates new industries
Reusable rockets enabled companies like Varda, just as cloud computing enabled startups in the internet era.
The space economy will grow in layers
Launch → infrastructure → manufacturing → resource extraction → settlements.
About the Guest
Delian Asparouhov is the co-founder of Varda Space Industries, a company building spacecraft that manufacture materials in orbit and return them to Earth.
He is also a partner at Founders Fund, where he has invested in aerospace, defense, and frontier technology startups.
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