According to the published data, it is planned to launch the upgraded Rokot carrier in the second half of 2022. The use of parts from Ukraine in its design was previously refused.
Russia continues to work on a version of the Rokot launch vehicle that does not have parts produced in Ukraine. Now the launch services operator Eurockot Launch Services GmbH has published the date of the first launch of the rocket on its website. "The Rokot-M launch vehicle will resume launches in the second half of 2022," [...] the report says.
Eurockot is engaged in commercial launches. The company is a joint venture between the European Ariane Group and the Russian Khrunichev Center.
The appearance of the upgraded version of the "Roar" was announced several years ago. The Rokot-M project was a development of the Rokot concept. Its main difference is the use of the Russian management system. Previously, such systems were manufactured at the Kharkiv enterprise "Hartron". Deliveries of components stopped after 2014. The final launch was carried out on December 27, 2019: then the carrier rocket put the Gonets-M satellites and the Blitz-M spacecraft into orbit. In the same year, the Rokot program was completed.
The launch of the Rokot light-class launch vehicle from the Plesetsk cosmodrome / ©Russian Ministry of Defense Rokot is a liquid-fueled three-stage light-class launch vehicle. It is based on the UR-100N UTTH intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). For the first two stages of the Rokot, the RS-18B ICBM accelerator unit is used, the third stage is represented by the Briz-KM upper stage. The launch vehicle has a launch mass of 107.5 tons. The length is 29.15 meters, and the maximum diameter is 2.5 meters. It can launch 2,150 kilograms of cargo into a low reference orbit using the Briz-KM upper stage.
Recall that Russia is currently working on the creation of a new launch vehicle of the light class "Angara-1.2". Today, its prospects are ambiguous. Earlier it became known about the postponement of the commercial launch of the carrier with the South Korean satellite KOMPSAT-6: it was planned to be carried out in 2020. And in 2019, the Russian Space Agency and the Khrunichev Center terminated an agreement that involved the production of the Angara-1.2 launch vehicle for launching the Gonets-M satellites into orbit.
In addition, Russian specialists are working on a reusable Krylo-SV stage, which in the future can be used as part of a light-class launch vehicle. According to the data announced last year, the first flights of the "Wing-SV" can be carried out as early as 2021.
UPD: Eurockot has deleted information about the first launch of the Rokot rocket.
