![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/videos\/2015\/02\/ixv_prepares_for_liftoff\/15260955-3-eng-GB\/IXV_prepares_for_liftoff_small.png\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\nThis timelapse video shows ESA’s IXV spaceplane, from final preparations to liftoff on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 11 February 2015.\n<\/p>\n
\nOnce sealed, IXV was encapsulated in Vega’s protective fairing and transferred to the mobile gantry for integration with Vega. The mobile gantry was rolled back for liftoff at 13:40 GMT (14:40 CET, 10:40 local time).\n<\/p>\n
\nIXV separated from Vega at an altitude of 340 km and continued up to 412 km. Reentering from this suborbital path, it recorded a vast amount of data from more than 300 advanced and conventional sensors.\n<\/p>\n
\nAs it descended, the five-metre-long, two-tonne craft manoeuvred to decelerate from hypersonic to supersonic speed. The entry speed of 7.5 km\/s at an altitude of 120 km created the same conditions as those for a vehicle returning from low orbit.\n<\/p>\n
\nIXV glided through the atmosphere before parachutes deployed to slow the descent further for a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.\n<\/p>\n
\nIXV\u2019s fully controlled reentry from orbital velocity and altitude represents an important first for Europe and consolidates the knowledge necessary for the development of any future European reentry system.\n<\/p>\n
More about IXV: http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Launchers\/IXV<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t \nThis timelapse video shows ESA’s IXV spaceplane, from final preparations to liftoff on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 11 February 2015.\n<\/p>\n \nOnce sealed, IXV was encapsulated in Vega’s protective fairing and transferred to the mobile gantry for integration with Vega. The mobile gantry was rolled back for liftoff at 13:40 GMT (14:40 CET, 10:40 local time).\n<\/p>\n \nIXV separated from Vega at an altitude of 340 km and continued up to 412 km. Reentering from this suborbital path, it recorded a vast amount of data from more than 300 advanced and conventional sensors.\n<\/p>\n \nAs it descended, the five-metre-long, two-tonne craft manoeuvred to decelerate from hypersonic to supersonic speed. The entry speed of 7.5 km\/s at an altitude of 120 km created the same conditions as those for a vehicle returning from low orbit.\n<\/p>\n \nIXV glided through the atmosphere before parachutes deployed to slow the descent further for a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.\n<\/p>\n \nIXV\u2019s fully controlled reentry from orbital velocity and altitude represents an important first for Europe and consolidates the knowledge necessary for the development of any future European reentry system.\n<\/p>\n More about IXV: http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Launchers\/IXV<\/a>
Connect with IXV on Twitter: twitter.com\/esa_ixv<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
Connect with IXV on Twitter: twitter.com\/esa_ixv<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}