Varda Space Industries, a microgravity-enabled life sciences company, announced the successful landing of its second reentry capsule, W-2, and the completion of the company's second mission. At 6:32 AM Pacific Time, W-2 touched down at the Koonibba Test Range after six weeks in orbit.

The W-2 capsule carried a spectrometer built by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and employed a heatshield developed in collaboration with NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. The capsule also carried out internal research that will expand Varda's pharmaceutical processing capacity and capability.

The AFRL spectrometer, known as OSPREE (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the ReEntry Environment), recorded spectral emission measurements of the reentry plasma environment around the capsule as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere at speeds over Mach 25. The OSPREE sensor, developed by AFRL Principal Investigator Captain Ashwin Rao, will yield the first in situ optical emission measurements of a spacecraft in true atmospheric reentry in history.

The partnership between AFRL and Varda is a cornerstone of the Prometheus program, which addresses a national security need to accelerate the ability to test and modernize high-hypersonic systems and reentry technologies through a low-cost, high-c cadence commercial flight testbed.

"By partnering with commercial space entities like Varda, AFRL can provide the Government S&T community expanded access to testing in true hypersonic conditions. Prometheus fills a longstanding experimentation gap for the maturation of future reentry system technologies," said Dr. Erin Vaughan, AFRL Prometheus Lead.

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. Operated by Southern Launch, the Koonibba Test Range is a 15,830 square-mile commercial launch and reentry port in South Australia. Varda's capsule is the first to reenter the range, as well as the first-ever commercial spacecraft to land on Australian soil. Previously, Varda's W-1 capsule was the first commercial spacecraft to land on US soil when it reentered the Utah Test and Training Range in Feb. 2024.

Southern Launch CEO Lloyd Damp said, "This mission marks an incredible step forward for Australia as a focal point for reentries. The Koonibba Test Range is fully instrumented with telemetry, radars, and ground and airborne optical and spectral image capture capabilities. Southern Launch is looking forward to continuing to contribute our world-class facilities, re-entry permit, and range operations to future missions with Varda and their partners."

The W-2 capsule launched as part of the Transporter-12 rideshare mission with SpaceX on Jan. 14. While in orbit, W-2 was supported by a Rocket Lab-designed Pioneer satellite bus, which provided systems for power, communications, propulsion, and attitude control for the 120 kg W-2 capsule.

"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," said Varda CEO Will Bruey. "What's next?"

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