EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Hypersonic flight, with its extreme speeds and heat, poses significant testing challenges due to the high costs and logistical difficulties of ground-based facilities. This lack of real-world data can cause design uncertainties, higher development costs and potential vehicle failures. SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force and a unique division within AFWERX, found a solution in technology wielded by Varda Space Industries, a California-based startup.

Varda manufactures pharmaceuticals and optical fibers in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in compact satellites and returns them to Earth in reentry capsules. The capsules are outfitted with advanced thermal protection materials developed by NASA to withstand reentry. Recognizing the potential of these capsules for hypersonic testing, Varda partnered with the DAF to adapt them into a Mach 25-plus hypersonic flight testbed. This provides a more affordable alternative to traditional programs with test flights costing more than $100 million.

This Success Story, which was first published in the AFWERX-SpaceWERX FY2024 Annual Report, has been updated since its initial release.

Since 2021, AFWERX has awarded Varda four SBIR contracts. Those agreements focused on developing thermal protection systems for Varda’s reentry capsule, crucial for both its commercial mission and future hypersonic testing.

In May 2023, SpaceWERX awarded Varda a $60 million STRATFI contract to create a dedicated hypersonic flight testbed. This contract included payload integration, user guide development, and two orbital reentry missions. The STRATFI included $15 million in SBIR funds, $15 million in government matching funds from AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate, and $30 million from private venture capital investors.

 

Expanded testing cadence and data collection

In December 2024, AFRL awarded Varda a four-year, $48 million contract to further develop and use its reentry capsules for hypersonic payload testing. This Phase III award marked another step in the technology’s successful transition.

Over the course of 2025, Varda has launched four space capsules into orbit, three of which carried scientific equipment to collect critical reentry data for the DAF.

In January, Varda flew its first mission under the AFRL contract, and its second for the DAF. Dubbed the Winnebago-2, or W-2, the capsule carried the OSPREE (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the Reentry Environment) spectrometer, which collects atmospheric information during a craft’s rapid descent to Earth.

The company’s third and fifth missions (launched in March and November, respectively) also carried government payloads for data collection.

Varda says its W-series hypersonic reentry capsule is the lowest cost, most rapid, recoverable option to reproduce the most challenging hypersonic and reentry flight environments. The capsule, manufactured by Varda in El Segundo, enters the atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour and hits Mach 25+ on every mission before landing by parachute on Earth.

 

Disclaimer: The content in this article does not constitute or imply endorsement by the Department of the Air Force of the provider or producer of the technology, product, process, or services mentioned.

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