IXV

Spacecraft nº:

ESA spacecraft nº: 90

Launch data: Designation  A08334 / 15U01 Launch date  11 Feb 2015 - 13:40 UT Launch site  Kourou, ZLV Launch vehicle  Vega (VV04) Mission  Reentry test demonstration Suborbital Flight: Perigee / Apogee  76 x 416 km Eccentricity   Inclination   5.4° Period   min

Artist's view of IXV reentry phase.

Description:

• A European Vega rocket, designated VV04, will launch with the European Space Agency’s Intermediate Experimental Vehicle, or IXV. The IXV will launch on a suborbital trajectory, testing advanced flight control and re-entry technologies before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
• The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is an European Space Agency (ESA) experimental re-entry vehicle intended to validate European reusable launchers that could be evaluated in the frame of the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). The IXV development would be carried out under the leadership of the NGL Prime SpA company. It would inherit the principles of previous studies such as CNES's Pre-X and ESA's AREV (Atmospheric Reentry Experimental Vehicle).
• IXV uses a lifting body arrangement with no wings of any sort, using two movable flaps for re-entry flight control. Re-entry is accomplished in a nose-high attitude like the Space Shuttle, with manoeuvring accomplished by rolling out-of-plane and then lifting in that direction, like an aircraft. Landing is accomplished by parachutes ejected through the top of the vehicle. The airframe is based on a traditional hot-structure/cold-structure arrangement, and is supported on-orbit by a separate manoeuvring and support module similar to the Resource Module intended for the Hermes. The avionics are controlled by a LEON2-FT microprocessor, and interconnected by a MIL-STD-1553B serial bus.

Pre-launch testing:

• The IXV's subsonic parachute system was tested at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in late 2012. Water impact tests were conducted at Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche's INSEAN research tank near Rome.
• On 21 June 2013 an IXV test vehicle was dropped from an altitude of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) in the Salto di Quirra range off Sardinia. The test was to validate the water landing system including the subsonic parachute, floatation balloons, and beacon deployment. A small anomaly was encountered when inflating the balloons, but the other systems performed as expected. After the test the vehicle was taken for further analysis.
• On 23 June 2014 the recovery ship Nos Aries conducted a training exercise with an IXV test article off the coast of Tuscany.
• In June 2014 the IXV test vehicle arrived at the ESTEC Technical Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, to undergo a rigorous test campaign to confirm its flight readiness in anticipation of a flight on a Vega rocket in November.

Mission details:

• Delayed from October and Nov. 18, 2014.
• The Arianespace/ESA Vega rocket made its fourth flight from Kourou on Feb 11, 2015. The Vega VV04 took off at 13:40 UTC (14:40 CET, 10:40 local time), with the AVUM 4th stage entering a 76 x 416 km x 5.4 deg orbit at 1353 UTC. The payload was ESA's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle, the IXV, an 1845 kg reentry vehicle to study hypersonic aerothermodynamics.
• It 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.
• As 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 Earth orbit.
• The IXV glided through the atmosphere and reentered over the Pacific at 1444 UTC, with parachute deployment at 1509 UTC and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 123W 3N at about 1518 UTC.

External links:

• ESA: IXV Information
  
• EOportal.org Satellite description