Angara Launch Vehicle

The collapse of the USSR in the beginning of 1990s resulted in dissolution of the Soviet airspace industry infrastructure: plants and design bureaus located in former republics were divided from Russia by new interstate borders. The state became highly dependent on its neighbors, particularly Ukraine, where space boosters were produced and maintained. Furthermore, Ukraine has been providing technical support for Russia's space launch vehicles as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles.

For decades Russia had been unable to substitute Ukrainian Zenit, Dnepr and Cyclone rockets. For instance, Zenit-3SL has become a key component of ambitious "Sea Launch" project – a mobile maritime platform designed to launch commercial payloads from equatorial waters. Meanwhile, Cyclone rockets, made in Dnepropetrovsk, have already been launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome more than 120 times, according to Russian Ministry of Defense. Evidently, the Russian and Ukrainian space and military industries still have strong ties, due to the Soviet legacy. However, in the light of the ongoing political and economic crisis in Ukraine, Russia's independence in space industry has become the issue of primary importance.

The Angara is Russia's first airspace rocket created since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The project was designed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and includes every type of booster needed for Russia's future space projects. It took almost two decades and about $3 billion to develop the brand new rocket from scratch. Angara is a new generation of carrier rockets on the basis of universal rocket module with oxygen-kerosene engines. The family includes carriers from light to heavy-duty classes ranging from 1.5 to 25 tons.

"Angara" is a family of Russian launch vehicles of various classes, from light to heavy, which was created as a replacement for the Proton-M and Rokot missiles. The new family, unlike them, uses environmentally friendly fuel components. By mid-2018 only two launches have been carried out, both from the Plesetsk cosmodrome: the light Angara-1.2PP started in July 2014; heavy "Angara-A5" - in December 2014.

At the forum "Army-2018" Roskosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said that the production of Proton-M rockets will be completed in 2020-2021, the operation of these missiles will be completed in 2025. According to him, the state corporation has contracts for 20 boosters.

The Angara family is a new generation of launchers under development at KhSC on the basis of a common core booster (CCB) using oxygen/kerosene engines. The design of this module takes account of the manufacturing hardware and tooling available at, and the state-of-the-art processes well mastered by, KhSC.

The Angara family includes different types of launchers ranging from the lightweight to the heavy class. The performance and operational properties of these launch vehicles is intended to make them competitive with top world space-industry brands. The high degree of modularity combined with the advanced manufacturing processes used is intended to ensure the cost of payload injection to a wide range of orbits to be low if compared to similar launchers in the world. The launch base to be used by the Angara family is Plesetsk, Russia. The unique design solutions employed would allow any member of the Angara family to be launched from the same pad.

By the end of 2016 only two launches had been carried out: light "Angara-1.2pp" was launched in July 2014, heavy "Angara- A5" - in December, 2014. Another family of rocket launch scheduled for the end of 2016. The first launch of the carrier rocket "Angara" from the Baikonur East, according to the draft of the Federal Space Program for 2016-2025 years, will be held in 2019. In addition, it was reported that the Federal Space Agency will launch vehicle with increased lifting capacity with hydrogen stage "Angara- A5V" and the manned version of the rocket - "Angara-A5P". The launch of a light version of the launch vehicle "Angara" may take place in 2017, while its postponement to 2018 was not ruled out.

Roskosmos abandoned the creation of a medium rocket - Angara-A3 - in April 2019 in order to develop the Soyuz-5 project. In official statements, Angara is still referred to as the main carrier in the light and heavy class, and the refusal from the medium rocket is explained by the fact that the Soyuz-5 has the same carrying capacity and it would be unreasonable to duplicate power.