Europe to launch experimental wingless space plane

Europe is set to launch an experimental “space plane”, a car-sized, wingless vessel whose 100-minute unmanned mission will inform the design of reusable spacecraft of the future. The European Space Agency’s two-tonne, 5m-long Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is scheduled to be blasted into space on a Vega rocket from a space pad in Kourou, French Guiana,…