On SpaceX’s upcoming mission, German company Atmos will launch its first cargo-return capsule

A European aerospace company is gearing up for a major milestone as it prepares to test its cargo-return technology in space for the first time this spring. Germany’s Atmos Space Cargo has announced that its Phoenix reentry capsule will be part of SpaceX’s Bandwagon 3 rideshare mission, launching aboard a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than April.

“This first test flight is the culmination of relentless effort from the team at Atmos,” said CEO and Co-founder Sebastian Klaus in a statement. “I am proud to lead this mission at such a crucial moment for Europe, as disruptive innovation is essential for our space industry to stay competitive on a global scale.”

Designed to safely return materials from space, Phoenix aims to provide a crucial service for high-value products manufactured in microgravity—particularly in the biomedical sector. The company highlights the growing need for a reliable, cost-effective way to bring back delicate research materials such as monoclonal antibodies, stem cells, organoids, and protein crystals. While launching experiments into orbit has become more accessible and affordable, returning them to Earth remains a challenge due to high costs, long wait times, and logistical difficulties, according to Atmos.

To tackle this issue, Phoenix will utilize an inflatable atmospheric decelerator (IAD)—a heat shield and parachute hybrid developed by Atmos. This technology will enable a smooth reentry, allowing payloads to return safely. The initial version of Phoenix can transport up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of cargo, but future models will have the capacity to handle several tons, potentially accommodating large objects like rocket stages.

This test flight will mark the first real-world trial of Phoenix beyond Earth. The capsule will carry four experimental payloads, including a radiation detector from the German space agency DLR and a bioreactor from the UK-based Frontier Space. Atmos has three key objectives for the mission: collecting performance data from Phoenix and its subsystems in orbit, gathering information from customer payloads, and successfully deploying and stabilizing the IAD during reentry.

While Phoenix is not expected to survive this initial test, the findings will be instrumental in refining future iterations of the capsule.

Atmos is not alone in developing orbital return technology. California-based Varda Space recently completed a successful mission, W-1, which landed in the Utah desert in February 2024, carrying space-grown Ritonavir crystals. However, Atmos claims that Phoenix offers an unprecedented efficiency advantage, delivering more cargo per capsule mass than its competitors.

“Advancing reusable, cost-effective, and dependable downmass capabilities is essential for the future of space development,” said former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, a member of Atmos’ advisory board. She emphasized that bringing back life sciences research, rocket upper stages, military satellites, and space-manufactured materials could be a transformative breakthrough in space transportation.