Updates Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV)

[Cosmic Penguin]

New launch time of 13:40 UTC.

 

[Urwumpe]

Lift-off was good, trajectory after third stage separation is good...

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IXV has separated from the AVUM in 340 km altitude and Libreville station has picked up the signal.

 

[IronRain]

Launch video:

 

[GLS]

78Km altitude and it's slowing down

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2 minutes to ship AOS

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AOS, all is well!

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Main parachute deployed!

---------- Post added at 03:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:09 PM ----------

Splashdown!

 

[Scruce]

Any news on the AVUM upper stage?

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Any news on the AVUM upper stage?

Already de-orbited. Now the question is - did it actually enter a Low Earth Orbit for 1 orbit, and thus qualifying this as an "orbital launch" despite IXV launched onto a "trans-atmospheric" trajectory? :hmm:

 

[kuddel]

IXV floating and waiting for recovery

Pics from esa

 

[ISProgram]

Already de-orbited. Now the question is - did it actually enter a Low Earth Orbit for 1 orbit, and thus qualifying this as an "orbital launch" despite IXV launched onto a "trans-atmospheric" trajectory? :hmm:

I think it reentered the telemetry FOV of the Kourou ground station (so one orbital lap) and then deorbited.

The Arianespace webcast actually mentions that it's intended to enter orbit, then deorbit, as to not touchdown near the targeted LZ for the IXV.

 

[Astro SG Wise]

Could a human, if given right conditions, have survived in that vehicle? Looks like a fast jump for ESA to a manned spacecraft.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

A human might have been a bit squished by how fast that Vega jumped off the pad. I'd like to see the G-load it took.

 

[Urwumpe]

A human might have been a bit squished by how fast that Vega jumped off the pad. I'd like to see the G-load it took.

Not that much higher than normal launches. The rocket is just pretty small, thus the 15 initial to 25 m/s² later acceleration appears higher than it really is.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Yeah. I was just checking out the size of the thing, it's smaller than I thought it was.

not meant to be "that's what she said" worthy, but..

 

[RGClark]

Congrats to the ESA on the successful launch and recovery.
Just saw this:

ESA re-entry vehicle could pave way for reusable launcher.
Posted on February 10, 2015 by Stephen Clark
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/10/esa-re-entry-vehicle-could-pave-way-for-reusable-launcher/

It doesn't specifically say it could be used for manned launches, but with the discussion in the article of "spaceplanes" I gather that would be an application. It's too small to serve as a manned spacecraft now, though perhaps a single, sitting crew man could fit in the wider rear portion of the craft.
Scaled up, say, by a factor of 2 might make it work as a manned craft.

Bob Clark

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Some more eye candy from ESA/CNES:

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

IXV is currently sailing back to Italy which it will arrive in late March. It will be shipped to ESTEC in Turin for detailed inspection.

 

[Astro SG Wise]

Are there any clips of the vehicle landing or in space?