European space plane set for February launch – Arianespace

Paris, France – Europe’s first-ever “space plane” will be launched on February 11 next year, rocket firm Arianespace said Friday after a three-month delay to fine-tune the mission flight plan.

The unmanned, car-sized vessel will be sent into low orbit by Europe’s Vega light rocket, on a 100-minute fact-finding flight to inform plans to build a shuttle-like, reusable space vehicle.

Dubbed IXV, for Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, the plane will be boosted from Europe’s space pad in Kourou, French Guiana, and separate from its launcher at an altitude of 320 kilometers (200 miles).

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Cheers, I was unaware of this

They should have invested into skylon

Would it be great if Australia had similar aspirations to be able to launch things into space.

Cymek said:

Would it be great if Australia had similar aspirations to be able to launch things into space.

No.

we are better off putting our limited money into collaborating in projects with other nations who have launch capabilities already. we could have a foreign owned launch facility in australia. thing is though we are a long way away from where the stuff is built.

I suppose I will just have to accept Australia will always be a second rate power at best

Boris said:

we are better off putting our limited money into collaborating in projects with other nations who have launch capabilities already. we could have a foreign owned launch facility in australia. thing is though we are a long way away from where the stuff is built.

I think a reasonable aim would be for Australia to have a partnership with the ESA the way the Canadian Space agency does.

dv said:

I think a reasonable aim would be for Australia to have a partnership with the ESA the way the Canadian Space agency does.

Thats fair enough I suppose, it’s just disappointing Australia doesn’t have much of a high technological capability.

Cymek said:

dv said:

I think a reasonable aim would be for Australia to have a partnership with the ESA the way the Canadian Space agency does.

Thats fair enough I suppose, it’s just disappointing Australia doesn’t have much of a high technological capability.

Well that certainly true too. Australian cities are a bit seventies.

dv said:

Cymek said:

dv said:

I think a reasonable aim would be for Australia to have a partnership with the ESA the way the Canadian Space agency does.

Thats fair enough I suppose, it’s just disappointing Australia doesn’t have much of a high technological capability.

Well that certainly true too. Australian cities are a bit seventies.

Not just that but you hear of all these exciting scientific projects being built and apart from the SKA which is the only one I can think we aren’t part of it. What is good is our location in the Southern hemisphere means we are part of the communication network for a number of space probes.

Successful manned launch of the Soyuz this morning.

From the in-capsule camera looked a very smooth ride

Dropbear said:

Successful manned launch of the Soyuz this morning.

From the in-capsule camera looked a very smooth ride

People complain about Putin but at least the rockets leave on time.