Varda’s W-5 mission lands in Australia

WASHINGTON — Varda Space Industries completed its latest reentry mission Jan. 29, completing an end-to-end demonstration of a new in-house spacecraft design.

The W-5 mission concluded with a reentry Jan. 29 (U.S. time) at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, operated by Southern Launch. The landing ended a mission that began with the spacecraft’s launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-15 rideshare mission Nov. 28.

The capsule carried a payload for the U.S. Navy under the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Prometheus program, which funds commercial reentry missions to collect hypersonic flight data. The program previously supported Varda’s W-2 and W-3 missions.

W-5 marked the first completed mission using a spacecraft design developed internally by Varda. The company used a Rocket Lab spacecraft bus for its first three missions but pursued vertical integration by developing its own bus.

“By owning the spacecraft, the capsule and the mission operations end to end, we can iterate faster, fly more often and reliably bring complex manufacturing processes back to Earth,” Nick Cialdella, Varda’s chief technology officer, said in a statement.

W-5 was the fourth completed mission but the fifth to launch. Varda launched the W-4 spacecraft — the first to use the new in-house bus — in June on SpaceX’s Transporter-14 mission to conduct pharmaceutical development in microgravity. The W-4 capsule was scheduled to reenter in December, but Varda called off the attempt “so we can further evaluate the propellant feed system,” the company said in a social media post Dec. 16.

At the time, Varda said it would wait until after W-5’s return to attempt another recovery of W-4. A company spokesperson said Jan. 30 that Varda is evaluating “a few paths” to bring W-4 back but did not provide details. The company emphasized that W-4 was a demonstration mission and that customer missions such as W-5 and the upcoming W-6 are the priority.

The W-5 reentry was also the third time Varda has recovered a capsule at the Koonibba Test Range, following its use of the Utah Test and Training Range for the inaugural W-1 mission. Varda signed an agreement with Southern Launch in September to support up to 20 landings at the site through 2028.

Southern Launch promotes Koonibba as an ideal location for spacecraft reentries because of its large land area and limited maritime and air traffic. Beyond Varda, Southern Launch has an agreement with Lux Aeterna, a startup developing a reusable spacecraft platform, to host the landing of its first spacecraft in 2027.

“Every spacecraft return strengthens Australia’s reputation as a trusted global destination for safe, reliable orbital reentries,” Lloyd Damp, chief executive of Southern Launch, said in a statement. “We are leading the world in helping companies like Varda bring their technology back to Earth and create a thriving orbital economy.”