Varda Capsule Reentry - Five Minutes from LEO to Earth

Varda Space Industries’ spacecraft, W-1, successfully landed at the Utah Test and Training Range on February 21, 2024. This marks the first time a commercial company has landed a spacecraft on United States soil.

A camera installed inside W-1 captured the entire reentry in this first-of-its-kind video.

You’ll witness W-1 orbiting Earth in LEO, smooth separation from Rocket Lab’s satellite bus, and its trajectory as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere at speeds over Mach 25 before safely deploying its parachute and landing.

This successful launch and reentry was possible through Varda Space Industries’ partnership with Rocket Lab, SpaceX, the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and the FAA.

Space is open for manufacturing.

[jgedutis]

This is one of the coolest space videos i have ever seen.

[kbr]

The dynamic range on that camera is wild. Going from pure black space with visible stars, to pointing directly at the Sun, without a noticeable change in exposure. Bonkers.

[martingarrixinformation]

0:26 The Moon
0:58 The Sun
Just amazing view 😲

[darylcloud]

I appreciate the planning to include this functionality. The sound of the re entry is incredible.

[rachelblack]

The Earth has never looked more beautiful than it does in this video. Thank you, Varda.

[kaleevans]

One of the coolest space vids I've ever seen. Huge kudos to the team for this amazing accomplishment.

[matthewscheusner]

This manages to be so immersive while still just being a five minute video of a space re-entry, it feels ultra immersive with the single view of a space vista. Beautiful!

[vogon]

I gotta show this to my kids. They love this stuff

[Anmeteor]

Fabulous video. Thanks. It would be even better if you could edit together a version with telemetry on screen. Altitude, Rate of descent, speed over the ground, time to touchdown etc. Awesome achievement though.

[festeradams]

Beautiful footage, thanks for posting. Since I've been watching space development since the 1960s, and over the years an emergency escape system for astronauts has been discussed. If such a system is developed, I would imagine the view for the astronaut would look very much like this....

[blushirt]

Loved it! From asteriod to a beach landing, what can't we do!

[Everett-xeeg]

I don't know how to describe how impressed I am. That's just incredible. What an amazing team of engineers.

[otrnam]

What beautiful looking planet from space.

[wecole]

One of the coolest "space" videos I've ever seen... pretty wild to see the real thing and not something made in Hollywood. (And I love seeing the person starting to collect it at the end.... nice touch.)

[johnstewart]

Beautiful! Welcome home and congratulations Varda

[HanClinto]

@5:36 - those are impressive levels of mud caked on the bottom of those shoes.

[ImExcalibastard]

I love how the stucco looking material went from pure white and clean to scorched after re-entry.

[stevenphillips]

This video is so cool. Show it to all the haters that still think the earth is flat and never been to the moon.

[ORIGINALTHUNDERDUDE]

man, we really are totally insignificant in this unbelievable universe.

[Splattervision-qhsd]

Job well done. Incredible video, thanks Varda!