The ambition for a spacecraft to return autonomously from low orbit is a cornerstone for a wide range of space applications. IXV will achieve this goal. More manoeuvrable and able to make precise landings, it is the‘intermediate’ element of Europe’s path to future developments with limited risks.
Launched into a suborbital trajectory on ESA’s small Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, the vehicle will return to Earth as though from a low-orbit mission. For the first time, it will test and qualify European critical reentry technologies in hypersonic flight, descend by parachute and land in the Pacific Ocean to await recovery and analysis.
Discussion: 2 comments
What are the intende orbital elements? (e.g. osculating at apogee). After separation from the AVUM, does the AVUM change trajectory – presumably some kind of depletion burn that brings its reentry point off the IXV track?
So the Arianespace press kit gets me all the more confused – the Zefiro stage is at 7.956 km/s at 171 km altitude, which is well over orbital velocity. (unless this is a typo) – will it be in orbit?; then the AVUM puts the IXV into a lower velocity 76 x 416 km orbit – then the AVUM makes two more burns over a 2 hr period, so presumably also ends up in an intermediate orbit before deorbiting (demoing a satellite delivery mission?)