A capsule containing crystals of the HIV drug Ritonavir lands softly at the Utah Test and Training Range in Tooele County. The drugs were manufactured in zero-gravity space and returned to Earth in a joint operation between Rocket Lab and Varda Space. Photo courtesy Varda Space.

California-based startup Varda Space Industries has made history by successfully returning samples of a drug made in space. And after months of delay in the experimental laboratory’s return, Utah hosted the historic landing.

Originally destined for a July return, the spacecraft parachuted to a soft landing late last month in the Utah desert at the Utah Test and Training Range near Dugway in Tooele County. The in-space manufacturing capsule had been confined in orbit for Please log in to see the rest of this story.