ESA plans to design and build an autonomous lifting and aerodynamically controlled re-entry system. Critical technologies are being tested: instrumentation for aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics, thermal protection and hot-structure solutions, guidance, navigation, and flight control using a combination of jets and aerodynamic flaps. The Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) will be the European platform for in-flight testing of re-entry technologies.
The mission is planned to launch from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana. In 2012, a new launch vehicle, Vega, will inject IXV into a low Earth orbit. The small spacecraft will perform a controlled re-entry, its descent slowed by a parachute, and will land in the Pacific Ocean.
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