All systems go for the launch of IXV

IXV (Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle), the European Space Agency’s atmospheric reentry demonstrator vehicle, is now putting the final touches to its preparations for its upcoming launch on 11 February from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana onboard a European VEGA rocket.

IXV has been conceived as the technological platform for flight-testing the technologies and critical systems of controlled atmospheric reentry of return missions from low earth orbit (LEO). It can be considered to be an intermediate step at experimentation level for future European space applications, ranging from transport missions to space exploration missions.

Thales Alenia Space Italy has been responsible for the design, development, integration and validation of IXV, leading a consortium of nearly 40 European partners including Europe’s main space firms, research institutes and universities.

This consortium of European firms includes GMV, which has led the development of two important subsystems and played a key role in another:

• OBSW, Onboard Software. GMV has been responsible for the design, development and validation of the onboard software (OBSW) that directs the vehicle autonomously throughout its whole flight after separation from the launcher.
• VMI, Vehicle Model Identification. GMV has been responsible for the design, development and validation of the techniques and algorithms for reconstructing IXV’s flight from readings taken during reentry, with the aim of improving aerodynamic prediction models for future reentry vehicles similar to IXV.
• GNC, Guidance, Navigation and Control. GMV has been responsible for the design, development and validation of IXV’s navigation function, which calculates the vehicle’s position and speed during the flight together with other derived parameters for guaranteeing vehicle integrity during atmospheric reentry.

IXV will be placed into orbit by a Vega rocket, reaching a height of about 450 km, allowing it to reach a reentry speed of 7.5 km/s, 27,000 km/h. During its atmospheric reentry, controlled by thrusters and aerodynamic flaps, it will collect a large amount of data on the hypersonic and supersonic flight phases, for subsequent analysis. Finally, the craft will then deploy a series of parachutes to slow its descent for a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean to await recovery and analysis.

The complete mission will last for approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, before parachuting down into the Pacific Ocean to be picked up by a specially equipped recovery vessel.

The data collected during the mission, verifying atmospheric reentry technologies under real conditions, will be a vital input for the development in Europe of new-generation reentry vehicles. These technologies include those of aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics, heat shields and the flight-control and navigation systems. It is therefore an essential mission for the development of future critical technologies in the fields of autonomous or crewed missions.