Fourth flight of the Vega booster. The AVUM 4th stage entered a 76 km x 416 km x 5.4 deg orbit at 13:53 GMT. ESA's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle was a reentry vehicle designed to study hypersonic aerothermodynamics. The IXV reentered over the Pacific at 14:44 GMT, with parachute deployment at 15:09 GMT and splashdown at 123 deg W / 3 deg N at about 15:18 GMT.
The AVUM stage made a second burn at apogee at 14:11 GMT and entered a 220 km x 430 km x 5 deg orbit. A third burn followed at 15:29 GMT as the AVUM passed over Kourou again, to deorbit the stage after one trip around Earth. The AVUM reentered over the Indian Ocean around 16:15 GMT.
Visible/infrared band earth observing satellite. The visible camera had a 10 metre resolution and a 290 km swath. Sun synchronous orbit; 1030 GMT local time of the descending node. Built under a EUR 195 million ESA contract as part of the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security system.