The Californian startup Varda Space Industries finished its third mission to return from the successful space capsule.
Varda’s W-3 back-to-school capsule landed in Australia-Meridine on Tuesday evening (May 13), providing payload and data from an advanced hypersonic navigation system for the US Air Force and incorporated innovative scientific solutions. W-3 was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on March 14, as part of the Transporter 13 mission from SpaceX.
After 8.5 weeks in orbit, the W-3 slowly landed at the Koonibba test range operated by Southern Launch Tuesday at 10:07 p.m. HAE (0207 GMT and 11:37 am local time on May 14). The recovery of Varda’s W-3 capsule comes a little more than two months after the return of the W-2, which landed in Koonibba on February 28.
“All over the world in 60 days,” Rocket Lab wrote in an article on X with a photo of the capsule landed by Varda.
The Varda W series capsules relied on pioneering satellite buses of Rocket Lab for their communications, their power supply in orbit, and to eject the capsules after burn burn at the end of each mission. The latter landing was the second from Varda to Koonibba. W-1 approached in Utah in 2024.
“High routine operations are our goal,” said Varda vice-president for the management of the Brandi Sippel mission on the Mission W-3 page. “We are working to return to school as common as the launch,” she said.
Around the world in 60 days. ✅ 900+ orbits ✅4.5 million miles traveled ✅ Our third success of the land to the land of Missioningrocking Labraves released the capsule of @ Vardaspace safely on land at landing at the Koonibba test range in South Australia, operated by… Pic.twitter.com/q8qnknMay 14, 2025
“Managing three successful missions for Varda in just over a year testifies to the ability of our team to produce tailor -made spacecrafts for the specific needs of our client quickly and efficiently,” said Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab says that the Varda W-4 capsule is currently being integrated with its pioneering satellite bus at the Rocket Lab headquarters in Long Beach, California. A launch date for this mission has not yet been announced.
