Russia’s space agency may launch three Angara carrier rockets next year

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos may launch up to three Angara carrier rockets from the Plesetsk spaceport in the country’s north in 2021 as part of their flight tests, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin told TASS at the Army-2020 international military and technical forum on Tuesday. The 2021 plan envisages the launch of heavy Angara-A5 rocket No. 3 with a new Persei booster and a light Angara-1.2 launch vehicle, he said. "But we proceed from the fact that a fourth heavy carrier will also be ready in 2021," he said. This year, the launch of a heavy Angara rocket is planned from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in November to orbit a satellite mock-up. Contract with Defense Ministry Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos has signed a deal to deliver four latest Angara-A5 heavy carrier rockets to the Defense Ministry, Dmitry Rogozin told TASS. "We have signed a contract for four serial-produced heavy Angara rockets," Rogozin said, replying to the corresponding question. A source in the Defense Ministry earlier told the business daily Vedomosti that the contract on four heavy Angara carrier rockets was estimated at over 18 billion rubles (about $240 million) and was due to be implemented by 2024. The Angara is a family of next-generation Russian space rockets. It consists of light, medium and heavy carrier rockets with a lifting capacity of up to 37.5 tonnes. The new family of rockets uses environmentally-friendly propellant components. So far, Russia has carried out only two Angara launches, both of them from the Plesetsk spaceport: a light Angara-1.2PP blasted off in July 2014 and its heavy version lifted off in December 2014. Read more