WASHINGTON — Varda Space Industries announced it successfully landed its reentry capsule in Australia on Feb. 28, completing the company’s second mission designed to collect critical data for military hypersonic research and NASA’s thermal protection systems.
The California-based startup, which specializes in building spacecraft for manufacturing products in space, designed the W-2 capsule to advance research into high-speed reentry conditions. After spending six weeks in orbit, the capsule touched down at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, a milestone for both the company and the region’s growing role in commercial space operations.
The capsule carried a specialized sensor payload from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) called OSPREE (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the Reentry Environment). This advanced instrument, developed by AFRL Principal Investigator Capt. Ashwin Rao, was designed to record spectral measurements of the dynamic plasma environment during reentry.
“The unique aerothermal chemistry of the reentry environment is impossible to simulate or replicate on the ground,” explained Muk Pandian, Varda’s director of strategic partnering and advanced concepts. He added that conventional testing methodologies cannot provide extreme conditions such as sustained plasma formation.
According to Varda officials, this mission achieved something unprecedented: in situ optical emission measurements of the reentry environment at speeds exceeding Mach 15, providing real-time data that offers insights into how materials and systems perform under extreme hypersonic conditions.
This mission represents Varda’s first under a multi-year agreement with AFRL.
“By partnering with commercial space entities like Varda, AFRL can provide the government science and technology community expanded access to testing in true hypersonic conditions,” said AFRL program lead Erin Vaughan.
The 120-kilogram capsule utilized a Rocket Lab satellite bus and incorporated a heatshield developed in partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center.
The W-2 capsule began its journey on January 14, 2025, when it was launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-12 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Reentry capsules are designed to travel to space aboard a launch vehicle, where they complete their mission — such as conducting experiments or collecting data — before being de-orbited and guided back to Earth using controlled atmospheric reentry, relying on heat shields to withstand extreme temperatures and parachutes or other braking systems to ensure a safe landing.
The W-2 landing marked the first commercial spacecraft to touch down on Australian soil. The Koonibba Test Range spans 15,830 square miles in South Australia.
Varda’s first W-1 capsule in February 2024 was the first commercial spacecraft to land on U.S. soil when it reentered at the Utah Test and Training Range.
Following recovery, the company said, the W-2 capsule will undergo processing at Southern Launch’s facilities in collaboration with Varda’s payload partners before being returned to Varda’s Los Angeles headquarters for comprehensive analysis.
The data collected during this mission is expected to help refine thermal protection systems, sensor designs, and aerodynamics for future hypersonic vehicles.
