W-3 mission lands successfully at Koonibba Test Range demonstrating Southern Launch’s capacity to support high cadence orbital reentries
The W-3 Capsule after landing at the Koonibba Test Range
On 14 May 2025 Southern Launch and Varda Space Industries successfully welcomed the W-3 mission back to Earth at the Koonibba Test Range.
The re-entry comes just ten weeks after Southern Launch and Varda successfully achieved the W-2 mission, Australia’s first ever commercial spacecraft reentry.
The Varda Space Industries W-3 capsule payload was an advanced navigation system called an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) developed by the US Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). The payload was tested at reentry speeds it was designed to withstand but has never encountered before.
The W-3 capsule touched down at 11:47AM local time after spending 61 days in orbit. The Varda capsule reentered the Earth's atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 25 providing a unique environment that offers researchers a chance to gather data for multiple applications.
Southern Launch is Australia’s leading space mission service provider and the W-3 mission was part of a series permit for the W-Series missions. The series return authorisation for three mission was the first authorisation approved for a domestically returning spacecraft under the amended Space (Launches and Returns) Act 2018.
The series permit secured by Southern Launch has enabled Varda to achieve a high cadence of reentry missions, cadence which is essential to support in-space manufacturing.
During the W-3 reentry operations the Southern Launch team worked to ensure air and sea space remained clear for public safety and employed advanced tracking telescopes to watch the capsule reenter and land under parachute.
Recovery operations were led by Southern Launch with Varda payload experts. The recovered capsule will undergo processing with Varda’s payload partners at Southern Launch’s specialist facilities before it is returned to the Varda headquarters in Los Angeles for further analysis.
The W-3 capsule was supported by a Rocket Lab-developed Pioneer satellite and lifted off aboard the Transporter-13 rideshare mission on March 14 2025 with SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
