MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Russia’s new heavy-lift Angara-A5 rocket may replace the Ukrainian Zenit rocket in the Sea Launch project, a source in the space and rocket sector told TASS on Wednesday.
The announcement was made at the recent board of directors meeting of the RKK Energia space corporation. “The documents have already been submitted to the United Rocket and Space Corporation,” the source said.
The new Russian Angara A5 heavy-load rocket was successfully test-launched on December 23, 2014. The Angara rocket family is a new generation of space launch vehicles with a payload capability of 3.8 to 35 tons. The carrier rockets of the Angara family are intended to replace the Proton carrier rockets.
The Sea Launch international company was founded in 1995 with the participation of US aerospace giant Boeing, Russia's Energia, Norway's Kvaerner and Ukrainian’s design bureaus Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash.
This is a major commercial international project on creating and using a sea-based rocket and space complex. The multinational Sea Launch floating cosmodrome launched Zenit-3SL rockets provided by Yuzhmash with the Block DM-SL upper stage, manufactured by RKK Energia.
The Sea Launch suspended its operations until mid-2015, the company announced in August.
