MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The Polet production association (part of Roscosmos) will be able to produce up to eight heavy Angara-A5 carrier rockets per year in 18 months’ time, Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov said during his visit to the Omsk-based enterprise.

"The maximum production capacity is about eight heavy Angara-A5 rockets and also light Angara-1.2 rockets. This is a very impressive output. I think that in the near future, within a year and a half, we will complete the upgrade and reach the maximum production capacity," Borisov said in a statement quoted by the press service of Roscosmos.

Borisov thanked the Polet personnel for their creative work.

"Today we really have something to be proud of. Polet has become a new production platform with new buildings and, most importantly, with an optimistic future. You manufacture the main launch vehicle for our main customer - the Ministry of Defense," he added.

During the plenary session of the conference Academic Readings on Cosmonautics in memory of S. P. Korolev (Korolev Readings) at the end of January, Borisov announced that the first launch of the Angara-A5 from the Vostochny spaceport could take place in early April.

Angara is a family of Russian-engineered and manufactured launch vehicles of various classes (from light to heavy). The new family uses environmentally friendly propellant components. The first (light configuration) rocket from the Angara family blasted off from the Plesetsk spaceport on July 9, 2014. On December 23, 2014, a heavy Angara-A5 was test-launched from Plesetsk.