Government

Gain flight heritage with frequent reentry

Varda’s Hypersonic Flight Test Bed is the off-the-shelf method to reproduce the most challenging hypersonic and reentry flight environments without building a costly dedicated representative test vehicle. Gain flight heritage through Mach 25 and advance your TRL.

Parachute deployed for landing
Capabilities

Affordable, frequent, and recoverable high-hypersonic flight testing.

Varda’s orbital capsule enters the atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour. The capsule hits Mach 25+ on every mission before landing, and recovering under parachute on land. This offers a real flight environment for hypersonic reentry vehicle subsystems such as thermal protective materials, navigation, communication, and sensors. Test as you fly, fly as you test.

Mach 25+ Flight

It is impossible to replicate the coupled aero-thermal-chemistry conditions at high-hypersonic flights on the ground.

High Heat Flux

Experience sustained plasma conditions in flight. 300W/cm² heat flux. 18,000K+ in the flow field.

Affordable

Our commercial customers and internal demand require us to continue to drive down costs every mission.

Sustained Capability

Varda's commercial business ensures an enduring and constantly maturing capability for the hypersonic industry.

Frequent

Reentry cadence growing to monthly by 2026 between government and commercial demand.

Reliable

Our commercial business relies on successful recovery of the capsule, every mission, every time.

Configurable Payload

Over 100W of power, tens of kilograms of internal mass, and plenty of area for TPS.
Capsule

Frequent reentry, from orbit to Earth.

Varda’s capsule is designed for rapid iteration and high rates of production so reentry becomes as commonplace as launch, and space becomes just another location to manufacture versus an exotic destination. Modular in design, and ready-built for materials and not humans, our capsule completes the space logistics chain.

Why now?

The missing link in agile aerospace

The hypersonic test regime currently lacks real world testing environments and the rapid cadence required to derisk our most advanced aerospace vehicles. Ground testing overly simplifies the coupled flight environment at high Mach speeds, and representative test vehicles are infrequent and expensive. Varda’s capsule offers true-to-flight conditions offering a path to quickly gain flight heritage when it matters most.

Computational design

Quick, but potential inaccuracies

Ground testing (wind tunnel or other)

Short duration, and false atmospherics

Varda flight test

Affordable, frequent, true environments

Representative flight test

Accurate, but very expensive and infrequent

Mission Profile

Real world conditions that maximize your learning

With a modular design, flexibility to launch on rideshare or dedicated flights, your mission profile is configurable to your exact requirements.

Science

Explore the science