# Will Bruey

> Will Bruey is the co-founder and CEO of Varda Space Industries, a company building autonomous capsules that manufacture pharmaceuticals in orbit and then fly them back to Earth. A former SpaceX avionics engineer who flew Dragon on eight missions to the International Space Station, Bruey now runs the first company to manufacture a drug in space and successfully return it. His pitch is deliberately unglamorous: make space manufacturing routine enough to be boring, then build the supply chain that follows.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Varda Space Industries
- **Organizations:** Varda Space Industries, Also Capital, Second Order Effects, SpaceX, Merrill Lynch
- **From:** Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Engineering Physics, Cornell University, M.S. Systems Engineering, Cornell University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Varda Space Industries, the first company to manufacture a pharmaceutical compound in orbit and return it to Earth, Flew SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on eight missions to the International Space Station as primary mission control operator, Lead avionics engineer on the Dragon 1 and Dragon 2 programs

## Career timeline

- **2011-2012** — Earned B.S. in Engineering Physics and M.S. in Systems Engineering from Cornell University
- **2012** — Joined SpaceX as a hardware development engineer on Falcon 9
- **2012-2018** — Lead avionics engineer on Dragon 1 and Dragon 2; primary mission control operator on eight ISS missions
- **2016** — Co-founded engineering consultancy Second Order Effects with fellow SpaceX engineer Dennis Fong
- **2018** — Joined Merrill Lynch as a director in global equities technology in New York
- **2019** — Co-founded Also Capital, an early-stage hardware-focused venture fund
- **2020-2021** — Co-founded Varda Space Industries with Delian Asparouhov and Daniel Marshall; became CEO
- **2024** — Varda's W-1 capsule returned to Earth, having grown ritonavir crystals in orbit - first time a company made a drug in space and recovered it
- **2025** — W-2 landed at Koonibba Test Range, Australia; Varda raised $187M Series C and reached unicorn status; signed pharma partnership with United Therapeutics
- **2026** — W-6 launched in March; Varda continues high-cadence reentry operations from El Segundo, California

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Varda Space Industries, the first company to manufacture a pharmaceutical compound in orbit and return it to Earth
- Flew SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on eight missions to the International Space Station as primary mission control operator
- Lead avionics engineer on the Dragon 1 and Dragon 2 programs
- Received a NASA Achievement Award (2014) for developing the video system used during ISS robotics operations
- Raised $187M Series C in 2025, taking Varda to unicorn valuation
- Oversaw six successful orbital-manufacturing-and-reentry missions (W-1 through W-6)

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Varda launched its W-6 capsule, continuing a high-cadence reentry manufacturing program.
- **2025-11** — Varda returned its sixth vehicle and reframed its mission around making space manufacturing 'boring' and routine.
- **2025-07** — Varda announced a $187M Series C to scale microgravity drug manufacturing.

## Links

- Website: https://www.varda.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-bruey-8a2b5040/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/WillBruey

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/will-bruey
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-22