It took less than 30 minutes for Varda Space Industries’ W-1 capsule to leave its eight-month orbital home and plummet back to Earth. Such a short travel time not only required significant speeds (about 25 times the speed of sound), but also required engineering techniques to withstand “persistent plasma conditions” while traveling through the atmosphere. Despite these challenges, Varda’s first reentry mission was a success, returning to Earth on February 21. To commemorate the occasion, the company released video footage of the capsule’s entire descent site.
Check out W-1’s fiery comeback below. Both shortened and enlarged cuts are available.
Below is a long 5 minute edit from separation to landing.
Complete, raw, unedited video and audio from separation to landing is available on YouTube. pic.twitter.com/ggIRHUvnnI
— Varda Space Industries (@VardaSpace) February 28, 2024
Varda’s W-1 capsule aboard the Rocket Lab Photon satellite bus launched on June 12, 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Once in low Earth orbit, the minilab autonomously grew crystals of ritonavir, a common HIV treatment. Manufacturing everything in space, let alone pharmaceuticals, may seem overly complicated, but there’s actually a good reason for it. As Varda explains on its website, processing materials in microgravity benefits from “the lack of convective and settling forces, and the ability to form more perfect structures due to the lack of gravitational stresses.” There is a possibility that you will receive it.
In other words, drug crystals like those in ritonavir can be grown to be larger and more structurally sound than would normally be possible on Earth.
The experiment lasted just three weeks, but Balda had to postpone the reentry program multiple times because of problems securing FAA approval. W-1 finally got the green light and prepared to return earlier this month. Meanwhile, it was equipped with a video camera that could film the dramatic fall.
After being released from its satellite host, W-1 begins a slightly dizzying rotation, providing some incredible shots from hundreds of miles above Earth. At about the 12 minute mark, the planet’s gravity really starts to come into play. This is when things start to heat up in Varda’s experimental capsule.
[Related: First remote, zero-gravity surgery performed on the ISS from Earth (on rubber)]
At Mach 25 (about 17,500 miles per hour), the external friction between the spacecraft and Earth’s atmosphere becomes so intense that it literally breaks the chemical bonds in nearby air molecules. This causes a dazzling show of sparks and plasma before W-1’s parachute deploys to slow and stabilize its final descent. Finally, the capsule was seen landing in a remote location in Utah, where it was recovered by Varda’s crew.
The next step is to evaluate pharmaceutical ingredients grown in space and launch additional capsules for further manufacturing experiments. Not all tournaments have cameras to record returns, but W-1 is plenty appealing.