Heavy Angara to be launched by end of next year
GORKI (Moscow region). May 27 (Interfax-AVN) - A heavy Angara rocket will be launched by the end of 2014, while a light Angara may blast off in May 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said at a conference with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday.
"The Khrunichev rocket plant is already assembling a heavy Angara. We intend to launch the heavy rocket by the end of 2014," he said.
A light Angara will be launched from the Vostochny Space Center in 2015, Rogozin added.
"We are controlling every stage of this strategic project, light and heavy modifications of the Angara rocket. It will allow us to move defense satellite launches from Baikonur to Plesetsk already next year," the vice prime minister said.
He said an Angara rocket will be dispatched to Plesetsk in the early morning hours of May 28. "The countdown for the first Angara launch will begin tonight," Rogozin said.
"As soon as the Angara arrives in Plesetsk, testing and adjustment of the complex will start. We plan to launch a light Angara next May," the vice prime minister added.
The Angara will be propelled with kerosene and oxygen. It will not be using heptyl fuel, which "does not stand up to environmental criticism," he stressed.