On February 28, the W-2 experimental capsule built by Varda Space Industries returned to Earth. The landing took place in a desert area of Australia. The purpose of the mission was to find out the conditions of the spacecraft as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed.
Varda Space capsule landed in Australia
On February 28, a W-2 capsule made a soft landing at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia. This is the first landing of the vehicle, built by Varda Space Industries on behalf of NASA. The purpose of the flight was to determine the conditions for the vehicle to fly at hypersonic speeds.
Varda Space conducted the first launch under this program back in February 2024. Then the W-1 capsule landed on U.S. territory. This time the main character of the flight was the OSPREE instrument (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the Reentry Environment).
It did what its name suggests — it has done spectroscopic studies of the hell that goes on behind the side of a spacecraft as it enters the earth’s atmosphere at high speed. At this point, the plasma has an extremely complex thermo-mechanical-chemical effect on the spacecraft’s hull.
Why it’s important
The W-1 capsule weighs 120 kilograms. It was launched into space on January 14 during the SpaceX Transporter-12 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. On board, in addition to the OSPREE instrument, there were also special coating fragments that were exposed to the external environment during hypersonic re-entry.
That is, scientists not only evaluated the processes occurring in the plasma, but also looked at how resistant the new coatings were to them. All of this is virtually impossible to replicate in the laboratory, so such launches are almost the only way available to scientists to make sure that in these hellish conditions there are no reactions going on that lead to corrosion of the material.
And this is not a theoretical interest at all. The creation of high-altitude hypersonic vehicles is one of the main topics of modern civil and military developments. And they really need something to keep the hull from breaking during long enough flights.
According to spacenews.com
