This Jan. 29, 2026, photo captures the streak the Varda Space Industries W-5 capsule made while returning to Earth. The capsule uses a protective heat shield Varda produced made of cutting-edge ...
Varda Space Industries/William Godward This Jan. 29, 2026, photo captures the streak the Varda Space Industries W-5 capsule ...
As the four-person crew of Artemis II prepares to launch on a historic mission around the moon as soon as February, some experts are worried about the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield.
The Varda Space Industries W-5 capsule returned to Earth in Koonibba in South Australia on Jan. 29, 2026, with the protection ...
Using cutting-edge material licensed from NASA, a protective heat shield manufactured in-house by Varda Space Industries for the first time enabled one of its capsules to blaze through Earth’s ...
Surviving atmospheric re-entry is one of the most demanding challenges a spacecraft has to endure. For a low-Earth orbit re-entry, the temperatures on the spacecraft can peak at 1,600°C, while the ...