After aborting in the final countdown on June 27, Russia's new Angara-1.2PP space rocket will attempt another launch on Wednesday. The Russian Federal Space Agency is continuing work after announcing in May that they will no longer supply the US with rocket engines and pull out of the ISS in 2020.
The Angara rocket is Russia's first newly designed space rocket since the Soviet era. According to Spaceflight101.com, the rocket is 40.4 meters long and 2.9 meters in diameter, and utilizes a modular approach (the Universal Rocket Module) to create a number of different launch vehicle versions with different payload capabilities. It will take off today from Russia's northern military Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
However, the new rocket is only scheduled to carry a dummy payload and will not reach an orbital altitude, but it will be able to put up four tons of payload into a low-Earth orbit when space launches are conducted. A heavy-lift version of the rocket, the Angara-5, is expected to carry 7.5 tons of payload into a geostationary transfer orbit (36,000 km above the equator) when it's completed. The Angara and its variants are also expected to function as a strap-on booster, similar to US-made rockets - the United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy and SpaceX's Falcon Heavy.
The Angara was forced to abort back on June 27 because of a drop in the pressure of the oxidizer tank, according to Energomash, the designer of the first stage RD-191 rocket engine. This misstep already has the rocket following the footsteps of Russia's Proton launch system that was used for commercial and government space launches. The Proton experienced a number of failures, thus leading to the development of the Angara rocket. After all, Russia's president Vladimir Putin has been working to reform the previously hobbling Russian space program since he was inaugurated in 2000.
The program has already began moving in a different direction, as Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced Russia will no longer participate on the International Space Station project after 2020. Additionally, they decided to no longer supply the United States with their RD-180 rocket engines (if they are to be used for national security-related launches) after Obama imposed sanctions on Russia following the crisis in Ukraine. The United Launch Alliance has been looking elsewhere for the past two months for a new supplier.
If the test launch for the Angara rocket goes well today, then Russia can begin phasing out older space vehicles and begin ushering in new variants of the Angara.
REPORT: Local wire agencies say the rocket left the launch pad at 7:00 a.m. EST. More details to come.
You can read more about the Angara test launch in this Reuters news article.
