W-3
The W-3 capsule’s payload was funded through the Prometheus program, an initiative from the Air Force Research Lab 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.
W-3 carried an advanced navigation system called an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) developed by the US Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). This payload was tested at reentry speeds it was designed to withstand but has never encountered before.
“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.”
"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 still the only company routinely launching and reentering autonomous manufacturing capsules through the high-hypersonic environment.
W-3 landed safely at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia on May 13, 2025.
