Varda Announces Third Mission Launch, the Company's Second Launch this Year
Varda aims to have a monthly launch and reentry cadence, developing a foundation layer for a thriving orbital economy
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Varda Space Industries, Inc., a microgravity-enabled life sciences and reentry company, today announced the successful launch of its third orbital processing and reentry capsule, W-3, just 15 days after the reentry of the company's second mission, which landed in Australia on Feb. 27, 2025.
The W-3 vehicle, supported by a Rocket Lab-developed Pioneer satellite like its predecessors, lifted off aboard the Transporter-13 rideshare mission with SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
W-3's payload is an advanced navigation system called an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) developed by the US Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). This payload will be tested at reentry speeds it was designed to withstand but has never encountered before.
IMUs are electronics that can measure an object's motion, orientation, and velocity. For example, everything from cars to wearable fitness trackers have similar devices to tell their computer the orientation and location without the aid of an external signal like a GPS, though commercial IMUs are notoriously inaccurate at high-speed conditions. Varda's capsule can help test these devices for our government and commercial partners to advance research into high-hypersonic technologies.
'The need for robust, plug-and-play IMU technology is a growing capability area that will significantly advance the current state-of-the-art for domain awareness and control of future systems,' said Dr. Steve NeVille, senior scientist at ISSI. 'The W-3 reentry flight test with Varda provides an exciting and unique proto-qualification platform to rapidly advance our IMU technology readiness level in a relevant reentry environment, which is the pinnacle of early development testing.'
Varda's capsule reenters the Earth's atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 25, a unique environment that offers researchers a chance to gather data for multiple applications, expanding the possibilities for the orbital economy and supporting US national security interests in low Earth orbit.
'Varda's commercial dual-use reentry capability is a game-changer for enabling rapid technology maturation for future systems,' said Technical Lead for AFRL's Prometheus reentry testbed program, Dr. Erin Vaughan. 'Affordable, frequent reentry flight test opportunities support S&T development for early risk reduction studies, reducing cost and schedule for novel technologies.'
The W-3 capsule's payload is funded through the Prometheus program, an initiative from AFRL in partnership with Varda. The program addresses a national security need to accelerate testing and modernization of high-hypersonic systems and reentry technologies through a low-cost, high-cadence commercial flight testbed.
'High-cadence, routine operations is our goal. We are working to make reentry as commonplace as launch,' said Varda Vice President for Mission Management, Brandi Sippel. 'We are looking forward to the day when sending capsules into orbit and back to Earth is seen as routine.'
W-3 will spend a few weeks on orbit before reentering and landing safely at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, operated by Southern Launch. Varda's second capsule, W-2, was Australia's first-ever commercial land reentry.
Distribution Unlimited; Approved for Public Release. Public Affairs Release # AFRL-2025-1094
Varda Space Industries is making reentry as common as launch. We are building the infrastructure for a thriving orbital economy, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules. The company operates out of El Segundo, California with office and industrial production space. Follow Varda on X (@vardaspace), Instagram (@vardaspaceindustries), and LinkedIn.
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