Moscow. December 29. INTERFAX - Voronezh Chemical Automation Design Bureau conducted tests of a forced oxygen-hydrogen engine for the Angara-A5 heavy rocket, Roskomos reported.
"On December 29, a fire test of the RD-0146D1 oxygen-hydrogen rocket engine, created at the enterprise for the KVTC upper stage of the Angara-A5 heavy-class launch vehicle, was successfully conducted at the test complex of the Voronezh Rocket Engine Building Center," the state corporation reported.
"Turning on the engine, working at the set modes, as well as stopping were carried out in accordance with the test program laid down," the message says.
"Compared to the previous version of the oxygen-hydrogen engine, which we manufactured and tested according to the project for the upper stage of the Angara-A5 rocket, we boosted the new copy by 20 percent in thrust," said Viktor Gorokhov, chief designer of the KBHA, whose words are quoted in the state corporation.
As the director of the bureau Sergey Kovalev notes, in addition to the Angara, the engine will also be able to find applications in other promising projects.
On December 27, the third test launch of the heavy version of the Angara rocket was conducted at the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
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 million to $100 million.
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.
