Europe's unmanned space shuttle Phoenix will be jettisoned over Sweden as part of a plan to develop a reusable space vehicle
Avi Blizovsky
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Successful test of the European Space Shuttle prototype.
An unmanned prototype of the European Space Shuttle glided to a successful landing on Saturday after being thrown from an altitude of 2,400 meters.
The EADS Phoenix spacecraft, designed in Germany as a prototype of a future European space shuttle, was launched from a helicopter at 9:45 this morning local time.
The spacecraft was equipped with GPS systems and landed perfectly on the test track after a 90-second flight, says Gadwana Bergerström-Ross, from the North European Aeronautical Experiment Center in Sweden.
"We were all excited," she said, "and this gave us wind in our sails.
Project managers say that a full-scale spacecraft will be built in at least a decade.
The test flight was originally scheduled for Friday, but was postponed so that the engineers could finish analyzing the data from a test they conducted for the on-board computers.
The ferry is supposed to be perfect between 2015 and 2020.
Begerström-Ross says that the next step will almost certainly be dropping the prototype from a higher altitude, with the help of a high-flying balloon. The complete shuttle will be able to glide to Earth from space - from an altitude of 120 kilometers.
The second test landing of the European Space Shuttle has been delayed for today
Last Friday's planned launch of an unmanned space shuttle prototype designed in Germany has been delayed for now while engineers analyze data from Thursday's first test flight.
"The operation was supposed to be finished the same day, but it took much longer than expected," said Gadwana Bergstroem-Roos from the Northern European Experiment Center in Kiruna, 1,230 kilometers north of the capital Stockholm.
The new launch is scheduled for this morning, Saturday.
EDAS-Phoenix is a prototype European space shuttle that will be lifted to an altitude of 2,400 meters by a heavy helicopter and then dropped so that it can glide to the ground for landing. The Phoenix, along with Ariane 5 represent Europe's hopes to send astronauts into space in the coming years. The vehicle is about 6 meters long, weighs 1,200 kilograms and has a wingspan of 3.9 meters. It is only one-sixth the size of the planned vehicle. The test area was adopted by the European Space Agency due to its remote location and being uninhabited. It has two no-fly zones with a diameter of 5,000 square kilometers available for experiments. Together with an air corridor, it is possible to fly experimental aircraft at a distance of 350 kilometers above the land.
EDAS, acronym for European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co, is the largest aviation manufacturer in Europe and the second largest in the world.
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