How The IXV Spaceplane Was Recovered From The Ocean

Ajouté : 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]S the top.

[00:00:18]On the 11th of February 2015, the European Space Ay's IXV space plane splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. It was the culmination of many years of experiments and tests that changed the design of the space plane, allowing it to blaze through the Earth's atmosphere, bringing home millions of euros worth of scientific equipment.

[00:00:43]It was a technological triumph. But salvaging the European shuttle from the sea also required months of planning.

[00:01:05]Mission control center in Trin the 11th of February 2015.

[00:01:11]The mission to send the ISV, the intermediate experimental vehicle into space was controlled from its own birthplace here in Italy.

[00:01:23]The 100minute mission to launch the space shuttle from French Gana into orbit and bring it back into the atmosphere at high velocity was the make orb breakak moment for the engineers and technicians that had designed and managed the 210 million euro mission from the beginning.

[00:01:45]>> What the IV is designed to demonstrate is the re-entry into the atmosphere.

[00:01:50]Though returning to Earth from space, re-entry into the atmosphere is still one of the most delicate aspects of the space mission.

[00:02:01]This is the first time that the private company perform a recovery operation like this because uh usually it was performed in past by Navy.

[00:02:13]The IXV recovery in the Pacific Ocean was contracted to the Italian salvage company Fatellineri, a company with nearly a century of experience in ship salvage. Never before, however, had they salvaged a space plane.

[00:02:32]The Fatalineri have the largest salvage fleet in the Mediterranean Sea and regularly deploy their ships globally on salvage and transport missions. In 2012, they oversaw the debunkering of the Costa Cardia. And in 2013, they provided the equipment to cut up and remove the Jelso M cargo ship from the coast of Syracuse in Sicily. The company possesses the Mediterranean's only fleet of oceangoing fire ships, too.

[00:03:13]The Noseries is a supply and anchor handling vessel. So a ship designed to support offshore and oil platform operations and to support all the operations for oil and gas exploration.

[00:03:25]So ships like these are able to follow a great number of operations.

[00:03:35]In order to be able to carry out this special salvage, the company ordered a very special ship to be built, the NOS Aras was built in the shipyards of Shanghai and sailed all the way to Italy in time for the mission. The crew commander on this mission was Roberto Azaro.

[00:04:02]The ship was bought from a Chinese shipyard about a year ago in February.

[00:04:07]It was then transferred to the Italian port of Levoro where all the special equipment and super structures required for this mission were mounted.

[00:04:18]>> Carlo Klea is the project manager for Ner and worked closely with the European Space Ay's recovery team. He is responsible for turning the massive tug into a space capsule salvage unit.

[00:04:34]>> The boat arrived in Italy in uh late April of 2014.

[00:04:40]We started them to uh a lot of modification on board uh work to install new crane and uh I designed also the the credle where the the spacecraft will be positioned after recovery and uh the deep tray underneath that is a basin which will collect all the fluids that will came out come out from from the spacecraft.

[00:05:07]The Noseries is a DP2 standard ship. So, it's a ship with a dynamic positioning system whose software automatically moves it in order to maintain a position set by the commander despite any external influences.

[00:05:23]>> Chiripo is the head of safety on the ship, which has been designed to face the most extreme fire situations. The main reason this ship was chosen for the mission.

[00:05:40]This kind of ship is designed to work with the oil platforms and it is designed both to provide support to these platforms to carry material as well as to be a firefighting ship and we have firefighting equipment that is able to extinguish fires on platforms.

[00:05:59]Alro, >> the NOS Aras is a massive tug, 60 m long and 16 m wide. It is the largest tug in their fleet. On the 20th of October 2014, the massive tugboat left Genanoa on this very special mission and began a trans oceanic trek first to Panama and then the Pacific Ocean. While the IXV made its way separately to the launchpad in French Gana.

[00:06:31]Here France runs its own space center in Kuru where for decades the legendary Aran space rockets have been launched from.

[00:06:48]The IXV is a tiny capsule compared with the American space shuttle jam-packed with scientific equipment. It is designed as a lifting body by which the shape of the capsule itself provides aerodynamic lift despite being deprived of wings.

[00:07:06]The IXV carries special instruments to measure the effects of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere by man space vehicles. It is a test project that is designed to develop future modes of space transportation.

[00:07:24]Marie Christine Contino is the recovery team leader for ESA.

[00:07:31]>> So we are here in Panama because uh this mission has two phases. One is the launch and re-entry phases and second is the recovery. So we are the recovery team. We are on board the Noir ship and this ship is starting to sail to the splashdown area from tomorrow.

[00:07:54]>> Although the launch and spaceflight parts of the mission had been simulated mathematically, the actual recovery of the spaceship was tested earlier at the Salto Duira Interforce firing range in Sardinia.

[00:08:07]In June 2013, a mockup of the space plane was dropped from an altitude of 3,000 mters by a helicopter, falling to gain speed to mimic a space mission before parachute deployment.

[00:08:22]Parachute deployment was one of the major concerns. Would the flotation balloons pop out or might it sink to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea?

[00:08:34]As the space plane splashed down into the warm Sardinian sea, the project managers were stunned that the flotation balloons did not pop out.

[00:08:44]The test mission was training for all the precautions that would have to be carried out in the real splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The space plane would still have highly flammable fuel on board and could spill some of it into the sea, creating a fire hazard for divers and crane operators alike. Parts of the space plane could have become dislodged. It was a highly dangerous mission that would require precaution on air, land, and sea.

[00:09:16]The divers deployed to recover the mockup first had to recover the expensive parachute and then proceed to discover why the vital flotation apparatus had not worked. They had to cut through the balloon covers and manually activate the balloons to ensure the space plane floated while it was recovered.

[00:09:38]The test flight was a milestone for European space research.

[00:09:51]This operation is somewhat special in that the only problem we could encounter during the salvage is the presence of hydroine.

[00:09:59]Hydroine is the propellant fuel that is inside the capsule. However, to face this problem, we have specialized personnel aboard trained to clean out the fuel tanks of the capsule.

[00:10:17]A year later, on the 23rd of June 2014, the brand new NOS Aras equipped with a customuilt crane carried out recovery tests in the sea off Tuscanyany to verify that the specially engineered ship would actually be able to lift the spacecraft out of the sea and safely deposit the IXV onto its cradle on the Mega Tugs. deck.

[00:10:49]Once the space plane had been delivered to Kuru, the Nosarius prepared the next phase of the mission and deployed to Panama Port, where it began a series of test runs on its first and primary task to recover the space plane once it had splashed down into the Pacific Ocean.

[00:11:14]The crew of the ship and the European Space Agency engineers work together to prepare for every possible recovery scenario. Many things can go wrong.

[00:11:27]>> The main difficulty is the point that the the the propellant of the of the vehicle is not breathable. So is a danger for the for the person. So we uh implemented all the operation with the safety devices for the guys involved.

[00:11:50]>> The ship safety officer explains how the crew is equipped to handle the dangerous fuel in the EXV.

[00:12:03]>> We have special suits for this type of operation that we will have to wear with breathing equipment. And the problem will be finishing the operation before the breathing apparatus runs out of oxygen. Otherwise, we will have to go back and get a resupply of oxygen.

[00:12:20]>> Oh, they will wear a suit that are specially built for this kind of fluid and uh we wear independent breathing apparatus to be independent from the external atmosphere. All the equipment will be explosion proof because also the the atmosphere could could become explosive. The firefighting equipment on board the NOS areas is the most advanced of its kind and the fertilary crew have been trained to face the most arduous firefighting missions which every salvage operation needs to be ready for.

[00:13:01]Toxic and flammable chemicals are often part of the manifests of cargo ships and salvers have to be ready for every possible catastrophic scenario. In the weeks preceding the EXV launch, the Greek managed ferry running between Patras and Bari caught fire with a loss of 30 lives and the local tug service equipped with hydrants were still unable to control the flames.

[00:13:28]Fire is the greatest single hazard in salvage missions and the NOS Aras crew has trained to respond to it.

[00:13:38]The crane is designed to lift 8 tons and has an extension of 12 m, more than any in the NR fleet.

[00:13:52]We have mounted a special crane which has a maximum arm extension of 11 m and that is rare on this type of ship and it was mounted on the ship for this mission only.

[00:14:06]We looked for a crane that was able to uh lift at least 8 tons at 10 m from the ship and uh the requirements uh asked for a crane capable to operate also in sestate 4. It means up to uh waves of a height of 2.5 m.

[00:14:37]The crane is the essential element in recovering the capsule. It is an Italianbuilt crane, so clearly Italian, designed in Italy. It's a hydraulic crane with an arm extension of 12 m and a lifting capacity of 8 1/2 tons. It can be operated manually by a driver on the crane or remotely by radio or wire guidance.

[00:15:01]The NOS Arius is designed to be able to haul huge weights using the speciallyesed crane. Weights that otherwise risk capsizing the ship. As the project manager for Ner Salvage explains, this cannot happen with this advanced vessel.

[00:15:20]We performed also stability calculation to verify that uh with the load on the side, the ship does not heal too much.

[00:15:29]But anyway, we have the chance to use sea water to balance one side of the ship and balance the the the load.

[00:15:40]The NOS Aras has been adapted to this mission in many ways that are visible both above decks and in the control room. The main element that is evident on the ship's deck is the firefighting equipment.

[00:15:54]This special saddle with an underlying vat is designed to host the EXV while it is being decontaminated of dangerous hydroine fuel. The ship's bosen, Franchesco Devita, shows off the major safety features on deck.

[00:16:12]Here I have the shower for emergency because Idraina is very dangerous and have the shower for emergency the technician or crew member.

[00:16:22]After when I have the uh this space shuttle on board, all is uh it's ready. The two dingies will be used to take the divers to the EIXV space capsule floating in the sea.

[00:16:38]However, finding the capsule in the vast Pacific Ocean with its empty horizons will be tough.

[00:16:50]We will have divers aboard who will swing into action as soon as the capsule has splashed down and they will attach flotation balloons as the capsule might suffer structural damage when it hits the sea and as a result not float.

[00:17:10]We uh plan to use two fast boats that with the divers on board, we reach as soon as possible the the vehicle that will be floating by its own balloon. And uh in case of need they can uh increase the the buoyancy of the of the vehicle connecting other balloons inflated on board.

[00:17:36]This 2 m diameter antenna is the main instrument that will help the crew find that needle in the Pacific haystack may be the toughest job on board but only part of the mission that cannot fail.

[00:17:52]We uh designed and installed all the equipment of the guys from ESA uh to take the telemetry data from the the spacecraft. So we installed the antenna all the telemetry kits.

[00:18:11]>> There are two European Space Agency teams on board the NOS alias mega tug.

[00:18:19]So well at the moment where you're looking on the background is the the area where we control the Naval station which is installed on the EXV recovery ship. Uh this this station will be tracking the last part of the EXV mission before the splash down into the Pacific Ocean.

[00:18:40]One crew acts as the fourth tracking station for the space mission, recovering information from the EXV as it flies through space and monitoring its descent to Earth. Ivan Muso leads the tracking team.

[00:18:55]>> We have prepared this equipment uh since 2009 with we have designed all the systems and now finally we are here to to execute the mission. The ESA recovery team was led by Marie Christine Contino.

[00:19:11]>> This mission has three objective. The first objective is re-entry uh demonstration validation and second is technology demonstration and uh third is expertise of all these experiments on board.

[00:19:31]Mission control in Trin in Italy at the headquarters of Talisenia who built the IS-V will be in contact in real time not only with the launch site in Ghana but also the two tracking stations in Africa and the team in the Pacific Ocean. Ivan Muso is the ESA control room director.

[00:19:55]From here we will receive the telemetry from the spacecraft. we will decode it and we will send all the data in real time to the mission control center in Italy.

[00:20:07]Then on the center part we have the antenna uh control unit. The system that is used to control the antenna. The antenna is uh uh designed for the tracking of a spacecraft from a ship. So from a system that is moving.

[00:20:26]So it is provided with a stabilization system and a very accurate uh control system that is based on the reception of a realtime trajectory uh computation from the mission control center from Italy. In the last part of our system, we have the an additional equipment for the major sounding measurements and also to provide to the mission control center a realtime video of the recovery operations because there are uh several difficult operations that our uh colleagues will have to do on the spacecraft to make it safe on the on board the the boat. Um there are two different kind of data. One is the data on the experiment inside the spacecraft and the other data is the data on the status of the soft systems inside the spacecraft. That this is the data that is transmitted to the mission control system for the experts to evaluate how is the mission performing.

[00:21:34]>> Without being able to track the spacecraft, the expensive instrumentation it carries is worthless.

[00:21:45]Night has fallen on Panama City and the crew of the Nosarius is ready to depart on the mission of a lifetime. The first space mission for this salvage company from Italy.

[00:22:06]Dawn rises over Panama City as the Nos Arias pulls out of port. On the 16th of January 2015, the Nos Aras left its birth in Panama for its position in the Pacific Ocean.

[00:22:24]Soon, the skyline of this commercial hub will fade into the background as the mission to recover the multi-million dollar European space plane gets underway.

[00:22:35]The goal of this tiny flying capsule is to measure the stresses that a space plane re-entering the atmosphere is likely to experience so that one day in the future, space flight will be made possible.

[00:22:53]To recover the tiny spaceship in the middle of the Earth's largest ocean, the crew aboard the NOS Arias will be using telemetry and radio data delivered through this 2meter diameter antenna.

[00:23:08]The sailing to the splashdown will be about two weeks and during this phase we will do all the training to prepare for the recovery operation. So this is the first phases. The second phases is the launch chronology. So the day of the launch from Kuru uh we will be in direct contact with the mission control center and with Kuru uh launch center and this is the phases where XV will be launched. We will follow the XV from different station in the world. And the last phaser which is the re-entry phases and the the splash on phases, we will uh localize the uh ex vehicle from the antenna which is on board this ship.

[00:23:59]On their way out to the position in the Pacific Ocean, the ESA and Fatalineri crews will work together to practice the delicate recovery operations.

[00:24:14]The ESA tracking team runs simulations directed from the Trin control center so that on the day their reactions to any unexpected events is immediate and seamless.

[00:24:31]Telemetry kit is the core of the Naval station. It is designed to receive the telemetry from the spacecraft, decode it and send the telemetry to the mission control center in Torino. It is also provided of simulation equipments in order to execute a sort of internal test without the involvement of external centers. Uh during the mission after the uh signal acquisition from the antenna uh we will receive on the telemetry kit the telemetry data uh sent from the vehicle and we will be responsible to uh record uh the received telemetries. Uh on these two recorders uh we will track uh two frequency uh the vital one and the experiment one. So the two receiver are one for the vital and the other one for the experiment.

[00:25:29]>> Meanwhile, the Bosen Franchesco Dvita and his team go through the motions of actually picking up the EXV out of the sea and dousing it with fresh water to avoid the fire hazard the deadly fuel represents.

[00:25:47]When we have uh taken out from the water and put it on the boat, it will be uh safely secured and then the pacivation what we call the pacivation of the vehicle will start to perform the mission. The vehicle needs uh tanks uh from the reaction control system. But then of course as it is a high toxic propellant uh we are not allowed to leave it in the vehicle for safety reasons.

[00:26:19]The big day has arrived. The 11th of February 2015.

[00:26:25]The ISV has been prepared for this key mission to test the technologies developed for future space planes.

[00:26:32]In this unique mix of space and nautical adventures, operations in Kuro in French Gana, launchpad of the European Space Ay's ISV are already underway. Once sealed in its protective fairing, the EXV is transferred to the mobile gantry for integration with Vega. The mobile gantry is rolled back for liftoff.

[00:27:03]EXV is a re-entry demonstrator. So we will launch from Kuru and uh after the separation we will have a small ballistic phase which goes over Africa until into the Pacific where the actual re-entry will take place and uh we will pick it up then from the ship out of the ocean.

[00:27:28]When a space plane such as the shuttle or Soyuse re-enters the atmosphere, it under goes a massive breaking effect. It goes from 7,000 or 8,000 km a second to a speed that is suitable for landing. It is an incredibly hard breaking effect that produces extremely high temperatures on the outside of the shuttle or so.

[00:27:53]The ISV is crammed with measuring instruments which will be key not only in navigating the spacecraft but also transmitting information back to Earth in real time as it dives through the atmosphere and is subject to extreme temperatures.

[00:28:12]The EXV has been specially designed to be a compromise between a space plane and a traditional capsule. The European Space Agency has used both the Russian soyos space capsules and the US space shuttle as transport to the International Space Station that circles the Earth. Indeed, the tragic breakup of the shuttle Colombia on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere shows how fragile space planes can be. In six space missions in his career, astronaut Roberto Vtorii has been subject to the massive forces that are measured in multiples of force of gravity or G's.

[00:29:03]I have flown three times aboard the Soyos and aboard the shuttle and I can say they are tough moments both for the machine and for the people inside it.

[00:29:13]Re-entry with the Soyos is approximately 4G. Re-entry with the shuttle is two or two and a half. It is the stage that, as we have seen with the Colombia shuttle accident, there is still a lot to be known. And that is why atmospheric demonstrators such as the EXV are important and will continue to be important.

[00:29:42]but with control paddles that allow for some maneuvering in space via remote control from mission control in Trinid or at least as far as the development opportunities in Europe for the EXV are concerned. It will be important to give it wings because without wings we are forced to land attached to a parachute which minimizes the advantage of being able to fly fast.

[00:30:21]Here, engineers from all over Europe will track the different phases of the mission and monitor the data transmitted back to Earth in real time.

[00:30:33]>> Roughly after 20 minutes, there will be a separation from the launcher. Then we will pick up the signal from a ground station in the west of Africa in Libraville in Gabon. Uh so we can see the switch on of the vehicle. We can see the activation of the onboard systems.

[00:30:50]This will be followed by a station pass in the east of Africa from Malindi where we see the continuation of these activities and we will also from this point onwards have a good estimate where the actual splashdown of the will occur.

[00:31:07]By 1 p.m. it's all systems go. Countdown is interrupted for a short while before resuming.

[00:31:14]There is a small window of time at which weather and light conditions are good enough for launch.

[00:31:23]The NOSAIS crew regularly send weather balloons up to gather data to send back to the launchpad in Kuru. The whole operation is dependent on the good weather at the launch and splashdown locations.

[00:31:48]The only difficulty that we might encounter are the weather conditions because as it is an object that is a little delicate and fragile, it is important not to damage the capsule structure. So as a result, a factor that will influence operations will be the weather.

[00:32:05]But in order to better handle this, the company has entered into agreements with weather stations which allow us to get weather updates even up to just six minutes before the capsule splashdown.

[00:32:18]So we will be analyzing the meteorological data and give the go-ahad for the launch.

[00:32:30]After a short hitch in the countdown, the Italian-built Vega rocket with the EXV lodged safely in its fairing is launched successfully.

[00:32:48]>> However, this is just the beginning of the mission. In these ESA simulations, the three most delicate phases of the launch are described. After just 2 minutes, the first stage Vega rocket falls back to Earth. Then after 3 and 1/2 minutes from launch, the second stage rocket detaches from the fairing.

[00:33:08]And finally, the fairing itself separates 30 seconds later with the IXV flying autonomously, kept on course by its own rocket and paddle controls.

[00:33:24]An hour after launch, it begins falling to Earth. This is the moment of truth for the whole design and control team.

[00:33:32]Data is streaming to mission control and then all of a sudden there is a blackout normal for re-entry.

[00:33:44]Well, many things can go wrong because it's an experimental vehicle. Um so everything is prepared and tested of course and from all what we know things are done in a way that uh nothing much shall go wrong but of course we don't know and this is why we experimenting with it.

[00:34:08]>> A few nerve-wracking minutes and the space plane is transmitting again. There is no indication of the state of the spacecraft at that time. But when splashdown occurs, the elation in mission control is visible. Now, will the European space agency sink to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean or float with the aid of its flotation balloons?

[00:34:32]Soon the world will know.

[00:34:40]The mission to recover the ISV from the Pacific Ocean has taken three years to prepare, but only two hours to finish.

[00:34:50]The spaceship begins its descent into the Earth's atmosphere as its instruments collect data on the performance of new materials in the heatresistant tiles and monitor the thermodynamics of the tiny craft.

[00:35:09]Back in Turin, where mission control is monitoring the progress of the ISV, all the data collected is processed and passed on to the NOS Aras, telling the crew and ESA team where to search for it in the wide open ocean >> from the mission control center. uh they will send us uh all the data from the the vehicle before it will splash down.

[00:35:39]So they will provide us information very very important for right operation on the spot because they know if the parachute will will open or if uh flotation balloon uh has opened. So we can prepare as a consequence of uh what they will say to us.

[00:36:05]>> There is another system to indicate where we should go and look for it. This other system is um let's say is managed by another team which is the recovery team uh that should take care of the recovery operations and getting the vehicle back on board.

[00:36:27]As it plummets through the atmosphere, it is slowed down from 17,000 km hour to just M 2 or approximately 2,000 km an hour. The atmosphere further slows it down to speeds that allow its parachutes to deploy. And then the EXV splashes down into the ocean just north of the equator near the Galapagos Islands.

[00:36:51]Celebrations erupt all over the world from Kuro to Trin as the speedboat crews prepare for action on the NOS Arias. The ESA team identifies it first by radar, then by telemetry, and as soon as it splashes down, two speedboats are sent with divers to scout it out. What will they find? Will it be a float? Will the sea around it be covered in deadly hydroine?

[00:37:32]The team in Trin waits with baited breath.

[00:37:42]Once we know uh that the ship is safe for the the people to go there, then we start the recovery operation will be to take the vehicle out of the water and to put it on the ship. Then we we will put store the vehicle safely on its cradle which is already prepared here. And once everything is done, then we will start the decontamination of the of the vehicle.

[00:38:13]>> Once the capsule hit the water, the Noseries sailed towards the splashdown area where the divers and specialized personnel had already carried out the first phase, the initial approach, and they had made the vehicle safe.

[00:38:34]Once they arrive at the site, the divers are able to ascertain that the spaceship is indeed floating, that the balloons have deployed, and that the sea is safe.

[00:38:47]They wait for the NOS Aras to approach.

[00:38:50]Now they attach slings to the spaceship, and the special crane mounted aboard the Italian tug ship raises it to deck. The decontamination squad is ready and waiting.

[00:39:30]We approached the vehicle that was floating on the starboard side of the ship. Slings were placed under it on the starboard side and they were very tense moments.

[00:39:44]They may have lasted just a few seconds, but it seemed a very long time as the capsule swung quite a lot due to the ocean waves that were quite high.

[00:39:56]But eventually the capsule was placed on the saddle located on the deck and fastened down adequately.

[00:40:13]The safety crew dousses the spaceship with water to dilute the propellant and secures it to the specially designed cradle. The hydroine is purged from the vehicle and it is prepared to return to base. Back in Tin, astronaut Roberto Vtori comments.

[00:40:36]We saw today with the launch of ISV that it took off from South America and in an hour and 40 minutes reached close to the coast of California. So a very short space of time but there was need for a ship to go and recover it. So it is clear that the two aspects contradict each other. The speed of travel on the one hand and the complexity of recovery on the other. It's only with wings that we can ensure that the craft can land and also that it can be reused.

[00:41:27]Once rendered safe to access, the team from Talis Alenia and the ESA can approach the space plane and extract the invaluable data collection cards that gathered the information that the EXV was sent into space to collect. As the Nosaria's tug plows the ocean waves to return to Europe, the success of the 210 million euro mission can be measured by the results obtained. There is cause for celebration.

[00:41:59]>> In the following days, the French team carried out the pacifization of the vehicle. So they extracted the propellant fuel that was in the fuel tanks and the circuits of the capsule and put it in a special container where it was pacified using hydrogen peroxide to make it harmless for the ship and for the personnel.

[00:42:25]of March 2015, the NOS Arios pulled into Lioro to dock again alongside the other Falinary tugs and fire ships, ready for the next mission. Aboard was the EXV in its container, which was fed back to Trin.

[00:42:44]The EXV is just one more step in the development of a viable space plane concept for suborbital travel. There are still many phases left.

[00:43:02]The nos Arias has joined the Ner fleet in Leorno and was immediately sent off to another mission to salvage a Turkish ship that sank off the coast of Ravena.

[00:43:12]But this is another story.

[00:43:18]Heat. Heat.