Varda Space Industries has launched its sixth reentry capsule aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-16 mission.

The capsule launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 4:02 am PT (11:02 am UTC). It carried a US government-funded hypersonic technology experiment within its interior.

The payload was designed to test a hypersonic navigation system capable of accurately identifying spacecraft position, even when communications are blocked by intense plasma sheaths during hypersonic flight.