Varda’s Bold New Voyage: U.S. Air Force Takes Flight with Second Mission

WASHINGTON — Among the cargo dispatched onboard SpaceX’s Transporter-12 rideshare mission on January 14 was a Varda Space capsule containing a payload from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), signifying a significant advancement for testing military hypersonic vehicles and commercial space capabilities.

This operation, referred to as W-2, represents the second mission by Varda Space Industries, headquartered in California, and the inaugural task under a long-term agreement with AFRL. The payload, termed OSPREE (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the Reentry Environment), is a spectrometer crafted to gather atmospheric data throughout the capsule’s rapid descent. The data collected will assist in enhancing thermal protection systems, sensor designs, and aerodynamics applicable to hypersonic vehicles.

The creation of military hypersonic vehicles conventionally depends on expensive flight tests, often surpassing $100 million for each launch. Varda’s methodology provides a more economical alternative by utilizing its factory-in-orbit spacecraft along with innovative reentry capsule technologies. These capsules simulate hypersonic scenarios as they dive into Earth’s atmosphere at velocities nearing Mach 25 (18,000 mph).

“By collaborating with the commercial space sector, AFRL can present an innovative, budget-friendly strategy for iterative development,” stated Erin Vaughan, a program official at AFRL.

Established in 2020, Varda specializes in creating spacecraft capable of producing valuable materials like pharmaceuticals in a microgravity environment. The firm also engineers advanced reentry capsules, incorporating thermal protection technologies developed by NASA to guarantee secure atmospheric reentry.

In 2023, Varda acquired $60 million in funding from both government and private sources to assess its reentry capsules for Air Force uses. This was succeeded by a four-year, $48 million contract with AFRL in 2024 aimed at supporting flights of W-Series capsules for hypersonic experimentation.

The OSPREE spectrometer from AFRL will capture optical emissions from the plasma created during the descent of the capsule. This instantaneous data offers essential insights into material and system behavior under extreme hypersonic conditions, improving both defense and commercial reentry technologies.

“A deeper comprehension of the reentry environment accelerates our advancement in defense capabilities while simultaneously laying the groundwork for commercial space endeavors,” remarked Will Bruey, Varda’s CEO. “As the orbital economy expands, reentry procedures will become as routine as launches.”

The W-2 capsule launched alongside SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission, which took off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Falcon 9 rocket transported 131 satellites to sun-synchronous orbit, comprising Earth observation instruments from firms such as Planet, Satellogic, HEO Robotics, Unseenlabs, among others.

The W-2 capsule, integrated with a Rocket Lab Pioneer satellite bus, is set to remain in orbit for several weeks prior to its descent at the Koonibba Test Range located in South Australia, which is managed by Southern Launch. The W-1 capsule, the organization’s initial mission, successfully landed in Utah in February 2024.

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