Fairing separation

The project tackles the basic European needs for reentry from low orbit, consolidating the knowledge necessary for the development of any future European reentry system while allowing risk limitation.

It will be launched by ESA in 2015 on Vega, Europe’s new small launcher, into a suborbital path, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. IXV will return to Earth as if from a low-orbit mission, testing brand-new European atmospheric reentry technologies during its hypersonic and supersonic flight phases.