W-3

The W-3 capsule’s payload is funded through the Prometheus program, an initiative from the Air Force Research Lab in partnership with Varda. The program addresses a national security need to accelerate testing and modernization of high-hypersonic systems and reentry technologies through a low-cost, high-cadence commercial flight testbed. W-3’s payload is an advanced navigation system called an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) developed by the US Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). This payload will be tested at reentry speeds it was designed to withstand but has never encountered before.