MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. A new modification of the RD-191 engine for Angara-A5 heavy carrier rockets will be developed by 2023 and the rocket’s first flight tests will take place that year, CEO of Energomash Research and Production Association (the producer of rocket engines) Igor Arbuzov said on Wednesday.

"We have set the task of developing a new modification of the RD-191M engine for the future family of the carrier rockets Angara-A5M, Angara-A5V and Angara-A5P (the crewed version) by 2023 and have made a decision that all the engines for this series must be produced at the production site in Perm [at the Proton-PM enterprise]. In 2023, the first engine for flight tests should be ready at the Perm enterprise," the chief executive said.

The first launch of the Angara carrier rocket with the new engine is also scheduled for 2023, he specified. The carrier rocket will orbit a new Oryol manned spacecraft in its crewless option so far, he said.

Simultaneously, efforts are underway to work out the design documentation and assimilate specific mechanisms and equipment, including with the participation of Proton-PM specialists, he said.

"I oversee the process very closely and every two months we are assessing the pace of the construction. We cannot say today that it is perfect in terms of compliance with the schedule and a whole number of other decisions but, nonetheless, we are moving towards beginning the transportation of equipment and organizing a full technological cycle from the middle of next year," the Energomash chief said.

The baseline RD-191 is a single-chamber engine with a vertical turbine pump. The work on it began in late 1998. This engine with oxidizing gas afterburning is designated for the family of Angara domestic carrier rockets. The engine’s design is based on the layout of RD-170/171 engines.

Head of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin earlier said that the first Angara-A5P carrier rocket intended for the launches of Oryol new manned spacecraft would be produced at the Omsk-based Polyot enterprise by 2024.

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 tonnes. The new family of rockets uses environmentally-friendly propellant components. So far, Russia has carried out only two Angara launches, both of them from the Plesetsk spaceport: a light Angara-1.2PP blasted off in July 2014 and its heavy version lifted off in December 2014.