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Image: ESA's Vega rocket with IXV payload

ESA's Vega rocket, with IXV on top, now awaits its fourth flight with liftoff on 11 February at 13:00 GMT (14:00 CET) from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle will be launched into a suborbital trajectory and return to Earth as though from a low-orbit mission.

For the first time, it will test and qualify European critical reentry technologies in hypersonic flight, descend by parachute and land in the Pacific Ocean to await recovery and analysis.