Moscow. December 27. INTERFAX - The Space Forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted on Monday the third test launch of a heavy carrier rocket "Angara-A5" with a large-scale mock-up of the payload from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported.
"The combat calculation of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces carried out a test launch of the Angara-A5 heavy-class carrier rocket with an overall mass model of the payload," the military department reported.
The rocket was launched at 22:00 Moscow time from the launcher of site No. 35 of the State Test Cosmodrome of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Plesetsk Cosmodrome) in the Arkhangelsk region.
The Ministry of Defense noted that all pre-launch operations and the launch of the Angara-A5 space rocket took place in normal mode. "The ground facilities of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces controlled the launch and flight of the launch vehicle," the military said.
This is the third test launch of the Angara-A5 heavy class launch vehicle. The previous launch of the Angara-A5 rocket from the northern cosmodrome was successfully carried out on December 14, 2020.
Previously, it was planned to launch the rocket on December 23, but later the launch was postponed to December 24, and then for another day. On December 25, an informed source told Interfax that the launch of the Angara-A5 heavy launch vehicle would take place before the end of the year.
The main customer of the missile family is the Ministry of Defense. At the Vostochny cosmodrome, the construction of second-stage facilities designed to launch rockets of this family is underway. The first launch of "Angara" from the cosmodrome is scheduled for 2023, in the same year a rocket with a promising manned ship "Eagle" should launch from it.
The rockets were developed by the Center. Khrunichev, however, is in the process of transferring production from Moscow to the Omsk plant "Flight", also part of the center. As the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin reported, from 2022 it is planned to produce four Angara-A5 missiles in Omsk, 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.
The general director of the Salyut Design Bureau, Sergey Kuznetsov, reported that at the moment the launch cost 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 (UTM) with oxygen-kerosene engines. The family includes launch vehicles from light to heavy classes in the payload range from 3.5 tons ("Angara-1.2") to 38 tons ("Angara-A5B") in low Earth orbit.
