After its successful landing on November 12 on a speeding comet, the European Space Agency (ESA) is set to create another space milestone by launching on February 11, 2015, the IXV, Europe's first space plane.

The launch of the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) would be from its space pad in Kourou, French Guiana. The space plane, about the size of a car and unmanned, would be sent by Europe's Vega light rocket into low orbit.

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It was built by Arianespace, a rocket manufacturing company, over five years, costing €160 million.

The February 11 take off is actually delayed by three months from the initial launch plan due to fine-tuning of the flight plan.

The 100-minute trip aims for the vessel to collect information while on its hypersonic and supersonic flight phases. Upon its launch, the IXV would separate from Vega at the altitude of 320km until it reaches 450km, after which it would re-enter the Earth at 120km that would start its return journey from low orbit.

The mission would test a reusable vehicle capable of landing on Earth on a conventional airport runway after a space journey. The agency believes it could be tapped to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. So far, only Russia's Soyuz has that capability.

Although the ESA, composed of 20 European nations, has been around for four decades, the agency has been relatively quiet compared to the NASA, Russia, India and China when it comes to its space conquests until the Rosetta mission when the ESA's Philae 220-pound probe made a 7-hour jump from its orbit to the comet's surface and landed, creating another major milestone in man's history of space exploration.

ESA also owns the Ariana 5, a rocket that is one of the largest in the world and responsible for the launch of half of commercial satellites orbiting the Earth.