After two aborted attempts earlier this week, Russia successfully launched its heavy-lift Angara A5 rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the country’s Far East on Thursday afternoon. The rocket carried a test payload into orbit, marking a significant milestone for Russia’s space program.
The Angara A5, capable of delivering payloads exceeding 20 tonnes into orbit, is part of the Angara family of rockets designed to replace the aging Proton launch vehicles. Developed after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Angara project aims to ensure Russia’s independent access to space without relying on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which Russia leases until 2050.
Thursday’s launch was the fourth test flight for the Angara A5 variant, with the previous three launches taking place from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The rocket’s core stage, known as URM-1, is powered by an RD-191 engine burning kerosene and liquid oxygen. Four additional URM-1 boosters provide extra thrust during the initial phase of the flight.
The successful mission comes after two scrubbed launch attempts earlier in the week. On Tuesday, a pressurization system failure in an oxidizer tank forced the cancellation of the launch just two minutes before liftoff. A second attempt on Wednesday was aborted due to an issue with the engine start control system.
Despite the delays, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, hailed the launch as a success. “The rocket worked according to plan,” Roscosmos stated shortly after liftoff. The Angara A5 placed its payload, a test satellite, into the target orbit about 12 minutes after launch.
President Vladimir Putin has emphasized the Angara rocket’s role in national security, although the project has faced numerous setbacks and delays since its inception in the 1990s. Roscosmos has touted the Angara’s more environmentally friendly propellants compared to the toxic fuels used by the Proton rockets.
Russia plans to leverage the Angara A5’s heavy-lift capabilities to launch modules for a new space station that could rival the International Space Station in the coming years. The rocket’s increased payload capacity when launched from Vostochny, which sits closer to the equator than Plesetsk, is expected to support these ambitions.
The Angara A5 launch comes amidst a series of challenges for Russia’s space program, including the recent postponement of a Soyuz spacecraft mission to the ISS and the failure of the country’s first lunar mission in nearly 50 years.
As Russia continues to develop and refine the Angara family of rockets, the successful test flight from Vostochny marks an important step forward in the country’s efforts to modernize its space launch capabilities and reduce its dependence on Soviet-era infrastructure.
