{"id":132791,"date":"2024-12-03T10:04:46","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T03:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132791"},"modified":"2024-12-03T10:04:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T03:04:46","slug":"u-s-air-force-awards-varda-48-million-to-test-payloads-on-reentry-capsules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132791","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Air Force awards Varda $48 million to test payloads on reentry capsules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Varda Space Industries secured a $48 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to test military payloads on the company\u2019s reentry capsules.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/varda-space-industries-raises-90-million\/\">A California-based startup<\/a> focused on in-space manufacturing, Varda Space developed a factory-in-orbit spacecraft \u2014 a compact, 120-kilogram satellite engineered to produce high-value materials such as pharmaceuticals in zero-gravity conditions. The materials are returned to Earth in a capsule built with advanced thermal protection materials developed by NASA to withstand reentry.<\/p>\n<p>The four-year deal with AFRL, announced on Nov. 26, leverages Varda\u2019s W-Series reentry capsules as platforms to test payloads at hypersonic speeds. The spacecraft are built on Rocket Lab\u2019s Photon satellite bus,\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Through a partnership agreement, NASA Ames produced the thermal protection material, called C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator).<\/p>\n<p>Varda\u2019s first successful demonstration was <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/varda-capsule-lands-in-utah\/\">completed in February 2024<\/a> when its W-1 spacecraft produced a batch of ritonavir, an antiretroviral drug. The capsule reentered Earth\u2019s atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour before parachuting to a precise landing site.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Military taps commercial reentry vehicles<\/h2>\n<p>The AFRL contract reflects growing military interest in <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/u-s-military-investing-in-reentry-vehicles-for-space-to-earth-cargo-delivery\/\">reentry vehicles<\/a> for applications such as hypersonic testing. Hypersonic speeds pose significant engineering challenges, especially in thermal protection, navigation and sensor performance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Commercial reentry capsules would give the Air Force an operational environment to test vehicle subsystems under real flight conditions. This approach is more cost-effective than traditional hypersonic test flights, which often rely on specialized and expensive experimental aircraft.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The new contract builds on Varda\u2019s prior collaboration with the Air Force. In 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/u-s-air-force-to-test-hardware-at-hypersonic-speeds-on-vardas-space-capsules\/\">the company won funding<\/a> to adapt its capsules for hypersonic testing.<\/p>\n<p>Varda\u2019s next mission, W-2, is scheduled for early 2025. This mission is designed to showcase the Varda Hypersonic Testbed vehicle. The capsule will carry an AFRL-developed spectrometer payload named OSPREE (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the Reentry Environment) to collect critical data during atmospheric descent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/u-s-air-force-awards-varda-48-million-to-test-payloads-on-reentry-capsules\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Varda Space Industries secured a $48 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to test military payloads on the company\u2019s reentry capsules.\u00a0 A California-based startup focused &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132791\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}