A small space private capsule has captured stunning onboard scenes from its high-velocity atmospheric reentry.
Varda Space's W-2 mission came to a successful and spectacular end on Feb. 27 when the capsule reentered the atmosphere and landed at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia.
The 265-pound (120 kilograms) capsule spent six weeks in space after launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter 12 mission.
The company has now released a video capturing dramatic images from its final moments in orbit above the planet and the final, fiery plunge back into Earth's atmosphere.
The final two minutes of the video show things really heating up, as sparks of varying colors and intensities are captured by the camera as the spacecraft interacts with the thick atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 25, or 25 times the speed of sound.
The conical capsule landed with the assistance of a parachute and was quickly recovered. The spacecraft carried a spectrometer from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and a Varda enhanced pharmaceutical reactor for the company's in-orbit manufacturing plans, and collected critical data for developing hypersonic technologies.
Varda aims to become a major player in the nascent in-space manufacturing industry, utilizing the unique environment of microgravity to manufacture products including pharmaceuticals.
The W-2 mission landing follows a year after the company's first mission, W-1, which landed in Utah in February 2024. The mission saw W-1 in orbit for eight months before delivering to Earth crystals of an antiviral drug that were grown in orbit.
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