Varda Space Successfully Completes Mach 25 Hypersonic Mission with W-2 Capsule
On March 3, 2025, Varda Space Industries announced the successful landing of its second reentry capsule, the W-2. This event marks the culmination of a six-week orbital mission, concluding with the capsule’s landing at Koonibba Test Range in South Australia at 6:32 a.m. Pacific Time.
The W-2 capsule carried an advanced spectrometer developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and utilized a heat shield designed in collaboration with NASA’s Ames Research Center. Additionally, it transported research aimed at enhancing Varda’s pharmaceutical processing capabilities.
The spectrometer, named OSPREE (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the ReEntry Environment), captured spectral emissions from the reentry plasma as the capsule plummeted to Earth at speeds exceeding Mach 25. According to Capt. Ashwin Rao, the principal investigator at AFRL, the instrument provided unprecedented in situ optical emission measurements of a spacecraft during actual atmospheric reentry.
The collaboration between AFRL and Varda is part of the Prometheus program, which seeks to accelerate the testing and modernization of hypersonic and reentry technologies through commercial flight testbeds. Dr. Erin Vaughan, the lead of AFRL’s Prometheus initiative, stated that this partnership greatly enhances government access to true hypersonic testing conditions, addressing a long-standing gap in experimentation needed for the development of future reentry technologies.
The recovered W-2 capsule will undergo processing at Southern Launch’s facilities before being sent back to Varda’s Los Angeles headquarters for thorough analysis.
Southern Launch operates the Koonibba Test Range, which covers 15,830 square miles and serves as a commercial launch and reentry site. Notably, W-2 is the first commercial spacecraft to successfully land in Australia, following the W-1 capsule, which made history by being the first commercial spacecraft to land on U.S. soil in February 2024.
Lloyd Damp, CEO of Southern Launch, remarked on the significance of this mission for Australia, emphasizing that the Koonibba Test Range is fully equipped with telemetry, radar, and optical and spectral imaging capabilities. Southern Launch looks forward to supporting future missions with Varda and its partners.
The W-2 capsule was launched on January 14 as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-12 rideshare mission. During its time in orbit, it was supported by a Rocket Lab-designed Pioneer satellite bus, which facilitated power, communication, propulsion, and attitude control for the 120-kilogram capsule.
