TEXT: "From the European Space Agency (ESA): ""[The IXV] will be launched by ESA in 2014 on Vega, Europe's new small launcher, into a suborbital path, from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. After being launched into space, IXV will return to Earth as if from a low-orbit mission, testing brand-new European atmospheric reentry technologies during its hypersonic and supersonic flight phases."" Image Credit: ESA–J. Huart"