Space factories edge closer after experimental capsule survives hypersonic landing

American outfit Varda Space Industries thinks it's a little closer to operating factories in space after successfully landing its latest test craft. Varda won the USA's first-ever license to first license fly uncrewed spacecraft that reenter the Earth's atmosphere. The company wants to do this so it can build small craft that include manufacturing facilities that create products it's only possible to make in microgravity - mostly pharmaceuticals - and figures that the relatively cheap launch services offered by private launch companies will make orbital factories economically viable. Spacecraft are not cheap to build, and the cost rises if they include equipment to slow from orbital speeds before reaching Earth's atmosphere. Crewed craft can be more expensive still. And humanity just doesn't have a lot of capacity to schlep stuff home from space. In March, Varda therefore launched a capsule called the W-6 that it hoped would survive re-entry at hypersonic speeds, and do so using an autonomous navigation system that uses onboard imagery to identify resident space objects, including stars and low Earth orbit satellites, to determine precise vehicle position." The company reckons that represents a critical step toward fully autonomous navigation for hypersonic and reentry vehicles." The craft also carried one nose tile that included samples of advanced thermal protection materials, another two tiles equipped with sensors to record data NASA will use to learn about hypersonic re-entry and the materials that make it possible. Thermal performance matters because if you go to all the trouble of launching an orbiting factory if the product made in space gets cooked during re-entry. It all seems to have worked because the capsule touched down as planned on Monday. Varda hasn't said much about the state of the W-6's capsule and its interior when it landed but has celebrated the flight as another demonstration that frequent, low-cost, reliable return is easily accessible." The W-6 landed at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, whose operator Southern Launch celebrated the fact this is the fourth capsule to land in the patch of remote bushland it tends in the last twelve months. (R)