2024-04-12 04:21:51
Russia has launched its “Angara A5” into space after three attempts. It was the launch vehicle’s first launch from a new spaceport.
All good things come in threes: Twice in the last few days the launch process had to be aborted a few minutes before launch, and now Russia has successfully launched its “Angara A5” carrier rocket into space from the Vostochny cosmodrome near the border with China. The actual start was planned for last Tuesday.
The rocket functioned normally and all stages were properly separated, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said on its Telegram channel. The rocket is currently bringing its test payload into the planned orbit.
It was only the fourth launch of the “Angara A5”, which is still being tested. The first test flight took place in 2014, a second flight in 2020. A third test flight in December 2021 was unsuccessful due to an engine failure. The rocket did not reach its target orbit.
All three previous missions launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwestern Russia. Today’s launch was the first from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, which the country opened for commercial flights in 2016. The cosmodrome has better infrastructure for larger payloads than Plesetsk.
The rocket is the great hope for Putin’s space program
The “Angara A5” belongs to a family of launch vehicles with different payloads. The country’s great hope of not losing access to space rests on it. Russia also wants to use the rockets for military applications, for example to put observation satellites into orbit.
The launch of the “Angara A5” is a “very important event for the country,” said Roscosmos boss Borissov last month at a meeting with Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, who wants more rocket launches for his country. According to Borissov, a successful test flight of the rocket will “strengthen ground-based space infrastructure.”
The almost 43 meter long “Angara A5” launch vehicle can carry payloads of more than 20 tons into orbit. It is intended to replace the Russian “Proton M” as a heavy-lift rocket, which has been in use since the mid-1960s and launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome.