Angara first launch imminent

On the night of May 27-28, 2013, a train carrying the first Angara launch vehicle departed from Khrunichev Space Center for Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Region. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who was overseeing the shipment at Khrunichev, commented on the event: “We have created a fundamentally new rocket; it is not just another modification of an existing Soviet design but the first truly Russian launch vehicle.”

According to Rogozin, the rocket will now undergo a series of tests, eventuating in the first launch in April or May 2014. Great hopes are pinned on the Angara program, which should provide Russia with independent access to space.

The Angara family consists of several classes of modular launch vehicles ranging in payload capacity from the lightest (represented by the first prototype that has been shipped to Plesetsk) to the heaviest. Each rocket comprises interchangeable segments of just two types: URM-1 lower stages and URM-2 upper stages. The Angara motors run on environmentally friendly propellant consisting of liquid oxygen and kerosene. The family’s modular design will help keep the production costs down.

Work on Angara began in 1991-92: the USSR’s disintegration had left Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, prompting Russia to seek independent access to space, primarily for military purposes. Khrunichev was selected as the Angara developer in a 1994 tender. In 1995, the project was authorized by a presidential decree as being “a matter of national importance”. However, no government funding was provided for its development so the target date of maiden launch (2005) proved impossible to meet.