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Russia to adjust Angara carrier rockets for deliveries of modules to new orbital outpost

Aleksey Varochko, General Director of the Khrunichev Space Center, said that the upgraded Angara-A5M will be used to supply various modules to ROS

MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. Russia is set to adjust its Angara carrier rockets for deliveries of modules to the future Russian Orbital Station (ROS), CEO of the Khrunichev Space Center Alexey Varochko told TASS.

"An upgraded Angara-A5M will be used for deliveries of various modules to the ROS," Varochko said in an interview with TASS.

"Preliminary design works are currently underway to adjust the [carrier] rocket for deliveries of various modules that will serve as basic components for the new Russian Orbital Station," he added.

In April 2021, then-Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said that the condition of the International Space Station left much to be desired and Russia might focus on creating its own orbital outpost. Work on the future orbital station’s conceptual design is currently underway.

Deputy Prime Minister, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said in October last year that Russia had already determined the preliminary cost of its future orbital station.

In February, Deputy Chief Designer of the Energia Space Rocket Corporation (part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos), ROS Chief Designer Vladimir Kozhevnikov told TASS that Russia would launch the research/energy module of its future orbital station in 2027 and four more modules in 2028-2030.

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.

The first three launches of Angara heavy rockets took place from the Plesetsk spaceport 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) and on April 29, 2022 (the orbital flight).