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The U.S. Air Force denied a recent request from Varda Space Industries<\/a> to land its capsule at a Utah training area, pushing back the startup\u2019s plans to show off the fruits of its in-space manufacturing, TechCrunch has learned. The company is also still awaiting a reentry license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, a USAF spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Varda originally planned to bring back a capsule containing crystals of ritonavir, a drug used to treat HIV, in mid-July. After announcing that had been delayed, the company was looking at September 5 and 7, a source told TechCrunch. This information was confirmed by USAF.<\/p>\n The company declined to comment, but posted on X<\/a> that the \u201cspacecraft is healthy across all systems\u201d and that they are continuing to collaborate with regulators to bring the capsule back to Earth. They added that the spacecraft can survive for up to a year on-orbit.<\/p>\n \u201cSept. 5 and 7 were their primary targets,\u201d a spokesperson for the USAF said in an emailed statement. \u201cThe request to use the Utah Test and Training Range for the landing location was not granted at this time due to the overall safety, risk and impact analysis. In a separate process, the FAA has not granted a reentry license. All organizations continue working to explore recovery options.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson further said that Varda \u201cis working on presenting alternate plans,\u201d but would not elaborate further whether that meant seeking an alternate landing site. A spokesperson for the FAA did not respond to TechCrunch\u2019s request for information on the reentry license by publication time. On the FAA\u2019s website, only one commercial space reentry license is listed<\/a>, for SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule.<\/p>\n