Next Generation Rocket Angara: News

Daniel_Admassu wrote:Hoping for the best:

Second Angara-5 to return to launch pad

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/angara5-flight2.html#2020

2nd A-5 vehcile launch apparently successful

https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/10247513

MOSCOW, December 14. / TASS /. On Monday, the space forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted the second test launch of the Angara-A5 heavy carrier rocket with the overall mass model of the payload from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"The combat crew of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces carried out a test launch of the Angara-A5 heavy-class carrier rocket with the overall mass model of the payload," the military department noted.

The rocket was launched at 08:50 Moscow time from the launch pad number 35 of the State Test Cosmodrome of the RF Ministry of Defense (Plesetsk cosmodrome) in the Arkhangelsk Region. As specified in the department, all prelaunch operations and the launch of the "Angara-A5" space rocket took place in the normal mode.

"Ground assets of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces monitored the launch and flight of the carrier rocket," added the Defense Ministry.

The ministry clarified that the Angara-A5 was taken to be escorted by ground-based means of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

"Launched at 08:50 Moscow time from the State test cosmodrome of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Plesetsk cosmodrome) in the Arkhangelsk region, the Angara-A5 space rocket at estimated time 08:53 Moscow time was accepted for escort by ground means of the Main Test Space Center named after G . S. Titov of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces ", - noted in the Ministry of Defense.

Nice....

Briz-M has seperated nominally at T+12 minutes 28 seconds , now we wait until test payload (non-detactable mass simulator) is delivered to GSO. Should be ~ 9 hrs.

source

Congratulations to krunitschev and Personnel at Plesetsk. I still regret the dummy payload decision. I remember Rogozin saying the same thing after the first test launch, 6 YEARS AGO. Any info why this was?

Daniel_Admassu wrote:Congratulations to krunitschev and Personnel at Plesetsk. I still regret the dummy payload decision. I remember Rogozin saying the same thing after the first test launch,  6 YEARS AGO. Any info why this was?

Probably as insurance costs would be prohibitive for any operational payload. Commercial operators won't risk an expensive bird, and neither will the Russian feds. A5 is not yet tested and certified, and this is only the 2nd test article (and 1st serial unit).

Still a new rocket... certainly not a reliable workhorse that they can trust without much question yet.

Big_Gazza wrote:

Daniel_Admassu wrote:Congratulations to krunitschev and Personnel at Plesetsk. I still regret the dummy payload decision. I remember Rogozin saying the same thing after the first test launch,  6 YEARS AGO. Any info why this was?

Probably as insurance costs would be prohibitive for any operational payload. Commercial operators won't risk an expensive bird, and neither will the Russian feds. A5 is not yet tested and certified, and this is only the 2nd test article (and 1st serial unit).

Aren't payload and vehicle insured separately? I would think that it was customary for a new vehicle to carry domestic payload at reduced fees. Government or military satellites are ideal candidates. They could have arranged something during these past 6 years. A successful delivery of a live payload boosts customer confidence more than a number of dummy launches. This however is me wishing aloud and I am sure there is a solid reasoning behind the decision. Now I am rooting for the completion of the pad at Vostochny.

Launch video.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1338401009199157248

On it´s way to the launch pad

Seems to be a long way so the rocket had to rest in this shed

All pics from the russian MoD website

Better launch vid from several angles

Roscosmos signed a contract to increase the carrying capacity of the Angara

source

MOSCOW, December 14 - RIA Novosti. Roscosmos has signed a contract worth over 20 billion rubles for the creation of an oxygen-hydrogen upper stage KBTK, which will significantly increase the carrying capacity of the Angara launch vehicle , follows from the materials of the state corporation posted on the state procurement website.

In October 2019, Sergey Kuznetsov, General Designer of the Salyut Design Bureau of the Khrunichev Center (Roscosmos enterprise), told RIA Novosti that flight tests of the KBTK are planned to begin in 2027 with the allocation of the necessary funding.

According to materials on state purchases, the contract between Roscosmos and the Khrunichev Center in the amount of 20.6 billion rubles for the creation of the KBTK was signed on December 10. In the course of the work, which is planned to be completed by December 2025, it is planned to manufacture models and prototypes, as well as conduct their tests.

Russia’s Roscosmos chief confirms plans to launch two Angara carrier rockets in 2021

The Roscosmos head told TASS in August that the 2021 plan envisaged the launch of heavy Angara-A5 rocket No. 3 with a new Persei booster and a light Angara-1.2 launch vehicle

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Two launches of Russia’s latest Angara carrier rocket are planned for 2021, Chief of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin announced on Monday.

"Two launches next year," the Roscosmos chief wrote on Twitter, without specifying the rocket’s modifications.

The Roscosmos head told TASS in August that the 2021 plan envisaged the launch of heavy Angara-A5 rocket No. 3 with a new Persei booster and a light Angara-1.2 launch vehicle. He also said that a fourth Angara heavy carrier rocket would be ready in 2021.

An Angara-A5 heavy carrier rocket blasted off at 08:50 a.m. Moscow time on December 14 from site No. 35 of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Plesetsk state testing spaceport in the northern Arkhangelsk Region. This was the second test-launch of the new Angara rocket. Twelve minutes after the blast-off, the rocket’s space head comprising a booster and an integral payload mockup separated from the third stage in the normal mode.

As Russia’s Defense Ministry specified, all the pre-launch operations and the rocket’s launch proceeded normally. The launch was carried out by a combat team of Russia’s Aerospace Force.

The Angara is a family of next-generation Russian space rockets. It consists of light, medium and heavy carrier rockets with a lifting capacity of up to 37.5 tonnes. The new family of rockets uses environmentally-friendly propellant components.

Until now, Russia carried out two Angara launches, both of them from the Plesetsk spaceport: a light Angara-1.2PP blasted off in July 2014 and its heavy version lifted off on December 23, 2014, orbiting a payload mock-up of 2 tonnes.

https://tass.com/science/1234773

The reason for the "delay" between the first launch several years ago and this one is that effort was spent optimizing
and developing manufacturing process. So once again, we see how the sky is falling chicken little critics are not in the same
universe when it comes to Russia. Russia could have launched another one a year later, but that was never the
objective. The Angara is not just the rocket itself, it is the whole manufacturing process. And it is not some
"old news", the point was to introduce a new format for manufacturing of rockets. Instead of custom build jobs,
they are supposed to be made on an assembly line. Nobody has done this including Space-X.

Longer video.
- As early as 0: 05, you can estimate the vibration level when launching the rocket.
- At 2:40, shock waves overturn the camera.
- At 3:29, you can see how the lantern on the right pole comes off
- At 3:38, you can hear the vibrations of the structures of high-rise masts located near the launch positions.

The Angara is not just the rocket itself, it is the whole manufacturing process.

The concept is modular building block, so money is not saved by recovering used rockets and refurbishing them and reusing them, but by making them standardised across a wide range of roles, so you use one rocket for light jobs and two for bigger ones and five and seven etc etc for the really big jobs... so getting production right is important and should result in economy and performance...


Excellent.

Amature video from distance:

GarryB wrote:

The Angara is not just the rocket itself, it is the whole manufacturing process.

The concept is modular building block, so money is not saved by recovering used rockets and refurbishing them and reusing them, but by making them standardised across a wide range of roles, so you use one rocket for light jobs and two for bigger ones and five and seven etc etc for the really big jobs... so getting production right is important and should result in economy and performance...


Excellent.

Exactly. The almost unique thing about the Angara is that it is modular from the ground up. The A1 (1.2, 1.2PP) is the lightest with just 1 URM1 booster/core. It can cover most LEO launches of standard satellites. The A3 has 3 URM1 units (1 core, 2 boosters) and will in the future cover the role of the Soyuz for ISS missions and heavier payloads to LEO or MEO. The A5 (1 core, 4 boosters) is planned to be the heavy workhorse that replaces the Proton to GSO or GTO. Similar with the A7 for heavy planetary missions.
Note that booster and core are all the same URM1 units with just a difference of end adapters or caps. The magic behind all of it is the multi-throttle RD-191 on the URM1 which is programmed for flexible firing to fit the necessary flight profile.
I can only see the soyuz and Proton retiring when the Angara configurations are fully certified. I still think the program should have been fast tracked with priority over legacy systems, such as building the Angara pad first in Vostochny instead of the Soyuz one, which really is not short of pads.

Are you too stupid to read the topic? This was all explained.

@Mike, no need to be rude...

@lancelot The rocket is new and has no track record of reliability yet... they have made some production changes to how it is made to make it faster and easier to make... why risk a payload over that?

It is unnecessary.

It is funny that the Russians in one breath accused of not caring about their people, and in the other for not taking risks... seems they can't win.

This is not a mature reliable system yet so risking a payload is unnecessary.

The test payload might have been ballast, but could just as easily be telemetry equipment that records everything in case of a failure to allow them to work out what happened in a container that is more robust than the rocket itself can be made.... that is used for testing new rockets and rocket combinations.

You can see how they plan to launch two tests next year. They could have done that a year after the first full sized test a
few years ago. But there were more important things to do like production and design. In terms of reliability, this rocket is
designed to report enough parameters at every stage of the launch to be able to do serious debugging. And it is not like
Russia forgot the lessons of the USSR and is starting from scratch.