Varda’s Second Capsule Successfully Lands in Australia
Varda Space Industries engineers recover the W-2 capsule after it landed in Australia after six weeks in orbit. Photo by William Godwin, Courtesy Varda Space Industries
Varda Space Industries successfully landed its second reentry capsule, W-2, and completed the company’s second mission, the company announced on Feb. 28.
After six weeks in orbit, W-2 touched down at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia at 6:32 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday morning.
W-2 carried payloads from multiple partners, including a spectrometer from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and a heatshield developed with NASA’s Ames Research Center. The mission also included Varda’s internal research to expand its pharmaceutical processing capabilities in space.
The AFRL spectrometer, Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the Reentry Environment (OSPREE), recorded the first optical emission measurements of a spacecraft during atmospheric reentry.. The partnership between AFRL and Varda forms a part of the Prometheus program, which aims to accelerate testing and modernization of hypersonic systems and reentry technologies.
The W-2 capsule was launched as part of the Transporter-12 rideshare mission with SpaceX on Jan. 14. A Rocket Lab Pioneer satellite bus supported the capsule while it was in-orbit with power, communications, propulsion, and attitude control.
The recovered capsule will undergo processing with Varda’s payload partners at Southern Launch’s facilities before it is returned to Varda’s Los Angeles headquarters for further analysis. The W-2 capsule is the first reentry at the launch port and the first commercial spacecraft to land on Australian soil.
“We are ecstatic to have W-2 back on our home planet safely and are proud to support significant reentry research for our government partners as we continue building a thriving foundation for economic expansion to Low Earth Orbit,” Varda CEO, Will Bruey said.
Previously, Varda’s W-1 capsule was the first commercial spacecraft to land on U.S. soil when it reentered the Utah Test and Training Range in Feb. 2024. The Varda W-1 capsule is currently a nominee for Via Satellite’s Technology of the Year Award for 2024.
The post Varda’s Second Capsule Successfully Lands in Australia appeared first on Via Satellite.