Europe's prototype space plane has splashed down in the Pacific on schedule after a 100-minute flight to test key re-entry technologies. <\/p>\n
\"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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Europe has the technology to send spacecraft into space, but not to bring them back to Earth. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Watch an interactive video about IXVhere. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The IXV's new aerodynamic shape, navigation and guidance controls, and thermal protection panels were all be put through their paces. <\/p>\n
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