Incredible images released by Varda Space Industries give us a first-person view of a space capsule's return journey to Earth, from the moment it separates from its carrier satellite in orbit to its fiery re-entry and bumpy arrival on the surface. . Varda's W-1 capsule landed at the Utah Test and Training Range, a military site, on February 21 for the first time for a commercial venture. It spent about eight months before that in low-Earth orbit, stuck in regulatory limbo while the company awaited the government approvals it needed to land on U.S. soil, according to .
“Here is a video of our capsule passing through the atmosphere at a speed of 25 Mach, without renderings, raw images,” the company posted on along with clips of the re-entry. Varda also shared a 28-minute video of W-1's entire trip home from LEO on .
Varda, who worked with Rocket Lab for the mission, is trying to develop mini-labs that can produce pharmaceuticals in orbit, in this case the HIV drug ritonavir. His W-1 capsule was connected to Rocket Lab's Photon satellite “bus,” which the company said before launch would provide power, communications and altitude control for the capsule. Photon successfully got the capsule to where it needed to be for last week's reentry, then burned up in Earth's atmosphere. reported. Now that the capsule has returned, Ars Technique reports that ritonavir crystals grown in orbit will be analyzed by the Indiana-based pharmaceutical company, Improvementd Pharma.
