Race for Mars hots up – test flight on ESA mini shuttle set for 11 February 2015

#spacetaxi #ESA #ISS #IXV #vegarocket The European ‘space taxi’ IXV (or Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle) is getting readied for launch on 11 February 2015 as indicated in dailymail.co.uk of dated 29 January 2015 – it would be a test flight. This vehicle would make available to Europe with its own shuttle-like, reusable space vehicle.
One of the objectives of this mission is to gather vital flight data that that could assist Europe to develop technology for a sample return mission to Mars, or to return astronauts from the space station.
It has been planned to launch the ‘space taxi’ on February 11 by using a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana – the flight would be of 100-minute duration. It may be recalled that the launch had, initially, been scheduled for November 18, but in October, Arianespace had announced a postponement in order 'to carry out additional flight trajectory analyses'.
The weight of the taxi is two tonnes, its size is that of a car and it is fitted with 300 sensors. The prototype IXV is expected to collect data on the craft's handling and thermodynamics. The two-piece shell will open to release the space plane at an altitude of 200 miles (320 km).
It has been developed over five years at a cost of $225 million and this IXV would be the test-bed for a reusable vehicle. It would be useful to bring astronauts back from the International Space Station (ISS). At present, this is done by Russia and its Soyuz.