IXV - Latest from Kourou

Date: Tue, Feb 10, 2015 | 17:00 - 17:30 GMT | 18:00 - 18:30 CET

Type: ESA TV News

Format: 16:9

This Wednesday, 11 February, at 13h00 GMT, IXV -ESA's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle- will be launched into space on a VEGA rocket from Europe's space port at Kourou, French Guyana.

Both IXV and Vega are now ready on the launch pad. Filled and covered with sensors this spacecraft will give Europe the chance to test new re-entry technologies during its flight.
Getting a spacecraft off the ground is hard enough. But getting it back to Earth safely is a real challenge. With IXV, ESA will test new aerodynamic solutions, innovative structures and materials, advanced guidance navigation and control laws and understand how they behave under the very harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry.
IXV is shaped like a 5 meter long ‘shuttle’ and weighs some 2 tons.
Vega will send it into a sub-orbital path and after separation it will fly over the Earth and then fall back into the middle of the Pacific Ocean for splash-down less than 2 hours later. Afterwards, it will be retrieved by a dedicated recovery ship and taken back to Europe for post-flight analysis.
This feed contains the latest images of the IXV launch campaign in French Guyana, including mating with Vega, roll-out to the launch pad and interviews with ESA management for IXV and Vega.

More information at: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Launchers/IXV

Satellite Parameters:

EUTELSAT 7B @ 7 deg East TXP B1 SLOT 1L (9MHz) 
DOWNLINK FR: 11014 MHz POL X/horizontal
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SIGNAL: HD 16:9 1080i/50 MPEG4(H264) 4:2:0 DR:10.7514 Mbps
AUDIO:1 mono Eng
AUDIO:2 mono Fr