MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, will not any longer buy Zenith rockets produced in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, Izvestia daily writes on Monday referring to representative of Roscosmos Igor Burenkov.
He said the agency would not buy any Zenith launchers, and the satellites that were supposed to be launched by them will be orbited by new launchers of the Angara class.
"Our industry has just finished work on a modern rocket that can carry out any tasks, and thus we don't need to buy rockets from Ukraine any longer," the newspaper quotes the representative.
Izvestia writes, Roscosmos planned three launches of Zenith rockets for 2016-2018, and two more were due this year - meteorology satellites Elector-L and scientific apparatuses, like the Spektr-RG Observatory.
Engines for Zenith rockets are produced in Russia, not far from Moscow, where Izvestia learned the company has five ready engines for Zeniths - they were produced in 2013-2014.
Head of the Energia Space Corporation, producing the engines, Vladimir Solntsev, told the newspaper the company suggests using the engines for a new launcher of the super-heavy class.
