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A European mini-space shuttle prototype launched into space on Wednesday and then zoomed back to Earth in a daring test of innovative technologies for future reusable spacecraft.

The European Space Agency's car-sized Intermediate Experimental Vehicle, or IXV, blasted off atop a Vega rocket from the European Spaceport in French Guiana at 8:40 a.m. ET Wednesday. The craft came back to Earth about 100 minutes later, making a parachute-assisted splashdown in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. A recovery ship was on its way to collect the IXV, ESA said.

ESA's director general, Jean-Jacques Dordain, said the test flight "couldn't have been better, but the mission itself is not yet over."

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"Now it's going to be necessary to analyze all of the data that was collected throughout the flight," Dordain said. [Photos: Europe's IXV Reusable Space Plane Prototype]

The experimental vehicle is a wingless lifting body rather than a winged space plane. It measures 16.4 feet long by 4.9 feet high by 7.2 feet wide (5 by 1.5 by 2.2 meters) and weighs almost 2 tons (1,814 kilograms) when fully fueled, ESA said.

Wednesday's flight plan called for the IXV to hit a maximum altitude of 261 miles (420 kilometers), then barrel back into Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 16,800 mph (27,037 kilometers per hour). Hundreds of sensors assessed how its thermal protection, guidance and other key systems perform during re-entry.

ESA considers IXV an important step along the path to mastering autonomous, controlled re-entry technology. IXV is considered "intermediate" because it follows the 1998 flight of the Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator capsule and precedes an envisioned space plane project called PRIDE, which stands for Program for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator for Europe.

— Mike Wall, Space.com

This is a condensed version of a report from Space.com. Read the full report. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter and Google+. Follow Space.com on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.