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Russia assembles 1st Angara-A5 carrier rocket at Vostochny spaceport for test-launch

On March 19, Roscosmos specialists connected the launch vehicle’s front part with a pack of three stages

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Russian space industry specialists have assembled a new Angara-A5 heavy carrier rocket at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East for test-launch in early April, the Roscosmos press office said on Wednesday.

"A joint team of specialists from the Khrunichev Center, the Vostochny cosmodrome within the Center for the Operation of the Ground-Based Space Infrastructure and the Energia Space Rocket Corporation have carried out operations to assemble an Angara-A5 space rocket. This launch will start flight development tests of the Amur rocket system being developed by the Khrunichev Space Center," the press office said in a statement.

On March 19, Roscosmos specialists connected the launch vehicle’s front part with a pack of three stages, it said.

Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov said earlier that the launch pad for the Angara carrier rocket at the Vostochny spaceport was practically ready and the first test-launch from the Far Eastern cosmodrome was scheduled for the first ten-day period of April.

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 tons. The new family of rockets uses environmentally friendly propellant components. The first three launches of Angara heavy rockets from the Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia took place on December 23, 2014, December 14, 2020 and December 27, 2021. The launch of a light Angara rocket took place on July 9, 2014 (the suborbital test flight), on April 29, 2022 (the orbital flight) and October 15, 2022 (the orbital flight).

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