{"id":16725,"date":"2014-12-22T18:04:18","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T10:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/russia-set-for-debut-launch-of-angara-5-rocket\/"},"modified":"2014-12-22T18:04:18","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T10:04:18","slug":"russia-set-for-debut-launch-of-angara-5-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/russia-set-for-debut-launch-of-angara-5-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia set for debut launch of Angara 5 rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The first Angara 5 rocket sits on its launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Credit: Spetsstroy.ru<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russia\u2019s powerful new Angara 5 rocket \u2014 made of a cluster of five kerosene-fueled main engines \u2014 is being prepared for a maiden test flight as soon as Tuesday that could usher in a new era in the Russian space program, according to Russian news reports.<\/p>\n

The rocket is being readied for liftoff from the Site 35 launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a military-run space center about 500 miles north of Moscow.<\/p>\n

The launch could occur as soon as Tuesday at 0557 GMT (12:57 a.m. EST), according a report by Russia\u2019s Itar-Tass news agency.<\/p>\n

Itar-Tass said Sunday the rocket was installed on its launch pad and undergoing preparations for liftoff.<\/p>\n

Other Russian news reports have set the Angara 5 launch date for Dec. 25.<\/p>\n

The 180-foot-tall Angara 5 rocket is Russia\u2019s most capable new launch vehicle in a generation, and its first test flight is the culmination of a 22-year development effort that cost approximately $2.9 billion, Itar-Tass reported.<\/p>\n

Officials say the Angara rocket program \u2014 which includes several rocket models to lift light, medium-class and heavy satellites into space \u2014 will allow the Russian government to retire the Proton and Rockot boosters and transfer launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to space centers on Russian territory.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Angara 5 rocket rolls to its launch pad in this file photo from November. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The demonstration launch will not carry an operational satellite. The rocket mission will put a simulated spacecraft packaged inside the rocket\u2019s five-meter (16-foot) diameter payload shroud into orbit thousands of miles above Earth.<\/p>\n

Russia has not disclosed the target orbit for the Angara 5\u2019s test launch, but observers suspect the mission will aim for geostationary transfer orbit \u2014 an egg-shaped orbit with a high point at geostationary altitude near 22,000 miles in altitude \u2014 or geostationary orbit itself.<\/p>\n

Weighing 773 metric tons (852 tons) when filled with kerosene, liquid oxygen and hypergolic propellants, the Angara 5 is the biggest Russian launcher to debut since the Energia rocket for the Soviet Union\u2019s Buran space shuttle flew in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

Five RD-191 rocket engines will fire to push the Angara 5 launcher into the sky. The kerosene-fueled engines, made by NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia, will generate 2.2 million pounds of thrust at maximum throttle.<\/p>\n

Engineers derived the single-chamber RD-191 engine from the four-nozzle RD-171 and dual-chamber RD-180 engines flying on the Zenit and Atlas 5 launchers.<\/p>\n

Russia tested a smaller version of the Angara rocket in July on a suborbital flight powered by a single RD-191 engine. Engineers designed the Angara 5 booster to use five RD-191 engine cores bolted together to put Russia\u2019s heaviest satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n

The five engines will fire in unison for more than three minutes, when four of the outboard boosters will shut down and fall away from the launcher. The core RD-191 engine \u2014 operated at a partial thrust throttle setting in the first phase of the flight \u2014 will ramp up to full power and continue burning until it consumes all of its kerosene and liquid oxygen propellant supply.<\/p>\n

A second stage RD-0124A engine and a Breeze M upper stage \u2014 borrowed from Russia\u2019s Soyuz 2-1b and Proton rockets \u2014 will finish the job. The flight\u2019s target orbit, likely geostationary orbit or geostationary transfer orbit, will require a series of burns by the Breeze M\u2019s main engine over several hours.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Angara rocket family comes in several configurations designed for light, medium-class and heavy satellites. Credit: Khrunichev<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Angara 5 can place up to 24.5 metric tons \u2014 about 54,000 pounds \u2014 into a 120-mile-high orbit. On missions with communications satellites heading for geostationary transfer orbit, an Angara 5 rocket can lift up to 5.4 metric tons, or about 11,900 pounds, according to the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, the Angara program\u2019s prime contractor.<\/p>\n

Khrunichev and its U.S.-based subsidiary International Launch Services plan to use the Angara 5 rocket to launch commercial communications satellites, eventually replacing the Proton rocket on the global market.<\/p>\n

The lightweight single-core Angara 1 launcher is tailored for missions to orbits a few hundred miles above Earth. Engineers could add or remove more Angara rocket cores to send up lighter or heavier satellites, depending on the specifics of each mission.<\/p>\n

The modular approach makes for a more flexible rocket, according to Khrunichev. Officials say all of the Angara variants can fly from the same launch pad.<\/p>\n

Khrunichev also touts the Angara rocket as an environmentally safe alternative to the Proton rocket, which burns hundreds of tons of toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants on each launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commissioning of the Angara system will provide to Russia the capability to launch any type of spacecraft from its own territory, and will secure for our country an independent access to outer space,\u201d Khrunichev said in a statement on its website.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first Angara 5 rocket sits on its launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Credit: Spetsstroy.ru Russia\u2019s powerful new Angara 5 rocket \u2014 made of a cluster of five kerosene-fueled main engines \u2014 is being prepared for a maiden test flight as soon as Tuesday that could usher in a new era […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1939,4199,1968,1969,1893,1971],"class_list":["post-16725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-angara","tag-angara-5","tag-breeze-m","tag-khrunichev","tag-plesetsk-cosmodrome","tag-rd-191"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}