Varda’s W-3 Capsule Lands Successfully in South Australia

Insider Brief

• Varda Space Industries has successfully completed the reentry and landing of its W-3 capsule at the Koonibba Test Range in Australia, marking the company’s third successful mission and its second capsule to land at the site.
• The W-3 mission, launched March 14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, carried an advanced inertial measurement unit developed under the Prometheus program, a collaboration between Varda, the U.S. Air Force, and ISSI, aimed at accelerating hypersonic and reentry science.
• Reentering Earth’s atmosphere at over Mach 25, the capsule offers critical data for next-gen hypersonic navigation, reentry component testing, and national security applications, solidifying Varda’s role as the only commercial company providing routine access to high-hypersonic environments for government and private sector partners.

PRESS RELEASE – Varda Space Industries, which is building infrastructure and enabling fundamental science for a thriving orbital economy, has successfully reentered the W-3 capsule, which landed May 14 at the Koonibba Test Range, operated by Southern Launch, at 19:07 Pacific Daylight Time. W-3 is Varda’s third successful mission and comes just 11 weeks after the previous successful mission.

W-3 carried an advanced inertial measurement unit developed in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). The Prometheus program, a partnership between Varda and the U.S. Air Force, addresses a national security need to accelerate the ability to conduct novel science and technology experiments in the extreme reentry environment through a low-cost, high cadence flight testbed. 

The W-3 capsule, developed by Varda, reentered Earth’s atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 25. This extreme environment offers researchers valuable data to enhance hypersonic navigation, expand orbital economy applications, and support U.S. national security objectives in low Earth orbit.

“Varda’s reentry capsule represents a game-changing opportunity for both government and commercial partners to test and validate cutting-edge hypersonic and reentry components and technologies,” said Dave McFarland, Varda’s Vice President of Hypersonic and Reentry Test. “The W-3 mission will provide unprecedented data to advance next-generation space and defense capabilities and continue to provide hypersonic environments to the reentry test community.” 

Varda is the only company routinely launching and reentering autonomous manufacturing capsules through the high-hypersonic environment. Through regular, reliable launch and return, Varda aims to continue to increase cadence and offer a novel, low-cost approach to iterative hypersonic science and technology experimentation.  

The W-3 capsule launched March 14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and is the second capsule to land at the Koonibba Test Range. Varda’s first mission, W-1, was the first-ever commercial reentry on US soil when it landed in Utah in 2024.