Moscow. April 12. INTERFAX-The number of launches of Angara missiles in 2021 may increase from two to three, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters.
"And this year it will fly at least two or three times, that's for sure," Rogozin said.
Earlier, he reported that in 2021, two launches of the family of missiles - light and heavy-are planned.
The first launch of the rocket took place on December 23, 2014. In May 2019, it was reported that in 2019-2021, the Ministry of Defense will conduct three launches of the Angara-A5 launch vehicle and one-Angara 1.2. However, the launch of 2019 was later postponed to 2020. The second launch took place on December 14, 2020 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. The third launch of the Angara heavy rocket is planned for the second quarter of 2021.
As the general director of Glavkosmos, Dmitry Loskutov, reported in October, commercial launches may be included in the missile test program.
The main customer of the missile family is the Ministry of Defense. At the Vostochny cosmodrome, the construction of the second stage facilities intended for launching the family of rockets is underway. The first launch of the "Angara" from the cosmodrome is scheduled for 2023, in the same year, a rocket with a promising manned spacecraft "Eagle"should launch from it.
The missiles were developed by the Center. Khrunichev, however, is in the process of transferring production from Moscow to the Omsk plant "Polet", also part of the center. As Rogozin reported, from 2022 in Omsk it is planned to produce four Angara-A5 missiles, from 2024-at least eight heavy and two light missiles.
It is planned that after the start of mass production, the cost of the rocket will significantly decrease.
As reported by the General Director of the design Bureau "Salyut" Sergey Kuznetsov, at the moment the cost of the launch ranges from 50 to 100 million dollars.
"Angara" is a family of the latest Russian modular launch vehicles of various payload capacities, created on the basis of universal rocket modules (URM) with oxygen-kerosene engines. The family includes launch vehicles from light to heavy classes in the range of payload capacities from 3.5 tons ("Angara-1.2.") to 38 tons ("Angara-A5B") in low-Earth orbit.
