Before Europe's new spacecraft design can lift off on its first mission, the European Space Agency must first test the hardest parts of bringing it home. Render of ESA's Space Rider orbiter. (Image credit: European Space Agency) Space Rider is designed as an uncrewed laboratory that can stay in low Earth orbit for about two months before returning experiments and cargo to Earth . It can support microgravity research, technology demonstrations and on-orbit validation work, with the ability to return its contents for analysis back on the ground. Instead of splashing down or drifting under parachutes, the vehicle uses a lifting-body design (without wings) and will land under a steerable parafoil for a runway-style touchdown — a flight system unlike any that has matured to operability on a spacecraft to date. It's a design meant to allow for more precise landing predictions and faster recovery.…