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Assembly of Angara carrier rocket kicks off at Plesetsk ahead of test flights — source

The rocket is being prepared for further test flights

MOSCOW, September 16. /TASS/. The assembly of an Angara-5 heavy carrier rocket has kicked off at the Plesetsk space center, a source in Russia’s rocket and space sector told TASS on Thursday.

"The assembly of an Angara carrier rocket has begun at Plesetsk. The rocket was earlier delivered by rail," the source said, adding that the rocket is being prepared for further test flights.

A source in the space sector told TASS in August that a train with the Angara-5 carrier rocket had arrived in Plesetsk.

Angara is a family of Russian rockets of different class, from light to heavy, using ecologically friendly propellants. So far, three launches have been carried out, all from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. The light rocket Angara-1.2 PP blasted off in July 2014 and the heavy Angara 5, in December 2014. The second test launch of the heavy rocket Angara-A5 took place on December 14, 2020.

Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, told TASS in June that four Angara carrier rockets would be commissioned by the yearend but not all of them would be launched by January 2022.

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