The Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow announced May 28 that it shipped the first flight version of its Angara family of rockets to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia in preparation for a flight at an unspecified date.
Angara is a planned a family of rockets featuring a liquid-oxygen/kerosene fueled common booster core capable of launching payloads ranging from 3.8 metric tons to 35 metric tons to low Earth orbit, Khrunichev said. Khrunichev is leading the Angara development, which is years behind schedule.
Khrunichev said the same launch pad will be able to accommodate all variants of the Angara family, whose primary government customers will be the Russian Ministry of Defense and Russian Federal Space Agency. The first heavy-lift Angara variant will be shipped to Plesetsk in November, the company said.
