Varda Space Industries’s initial effort, with a bus built by Rocket Lab and launched by SpaceX, is a perfect example of new space collaboration and what it can enable:

Varda’s vision is straightforward: The company’s capsule will launch with an experiment already on board. Once in orbit, the capsule detaches and begins flying through space attached to what’s called a satellite bus, a structure that will provide the power, propulsion and communications necessary to navigate the vacuum of space. (For Varda’s first few missions, the satellite bus will be provided by another commercial space company, Rocket Lab.)

Then the experiment begins, carried out by simple on-board machines. The goal is to create key components of pharmaceuticals while in microgravity. In this weightless environment, such experiments aren’t bogged down by Earth’s pull.