This (pictured above) is the European Space Agency's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) and it is being proposed as a test flight vehicle for the ESA/Russian Federal Space Agency Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS). The IXV would be launched by the new European Vega rocket, which is to have its maiden flight from French Guiana next year. These pictures, taken of the presentation made by ESA's Giorgio Tumino at the 15th AIAA international space planes, hypersonic systems and technologies conference, show that the IXV mission is now being considered as an early test flight for CSTS
This may seem odd considering the concepts for CSTS are Soyuz, biconic and Apollo-like capsules but according to this chart from Tumino's presentation the IXV's performance will match a great number of areas that require further development
