Europe's prototype space plane has splashed down in the Pacific on schedule after a 100-minute flight to test key re-entry technologies.

"The mission has come to an end according to plan... it couldn't have been better," European Space Agencychief Jean-Jacques Dordain said in a live webcast.

The car-sized craft tests new technologies and systems that it is hoped will enable Europe to build a space vehicle that can re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

Ireland has part funded the mission, while staff at the Dublin office of engineering firm Curtiss-Wright have built the systems to gather, store and transmit the data generated by 300 sensors on board.

Europe has the technology to send spacecraft into space, but not to bring them back to Earth.

The lack of such knowledge has left European space agencies dependent on other nations for astronaut transport and held back Europe's ambitions to return samples from asteroids or other planets.

Thenew space vehicle, the IXV, was launched to test new systems and technologies for atmospheric re-entry, the most difficult and risky part of any return space flight.

Watch an interactive video about IXVhere.

The unmanned space planeblasted off from French Guiana and will travel 420km into space, before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere at 27,000km per hour and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

The IXV's new aerodynamic shape, navigation and guidance controls, and thermal protection panels were all be put through their paces.

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Europe's mini-space shuttle splashes down