Next Generation Rocket Angara: News

The source said about the postponement of the launch of the Angara-A5 rocket, 24.12.2021.

The launch of a heavy carrier rocket "Angara-A5" from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region, previously scheduled for December 24, was canceled by the automation of the launch complex. This was announced by a RIA Novosti source in the rocket and space industry.

"At present, a state mission is working at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, which is studying the reasons for canceling the launch on Friday and deciding the issue of the possibility of launching the Angara-A5 carrier rocket on Saturday (December 25 - Ed.)," The agency's interlocutor said.

According to a TASS source , an automatic command to rebound the launch was formed "one and a half minutes before the start."

The detached parts of the launch vehicle, presumably, will fall on the territory of the Kargasoksky, Parabelsky, Kolpashevsky and Verkhneketsky districts of the Tomsk region. On December 9, regional authorities urged citizens to be more careful. and refrain from visiting these areas during launch.

On December 3, Dmitry Rogozin, the general director of Roscosmos, announced that a test launch of the light version of the Angara rocket would take place in the first half of 2022 .

In October, the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation, Sergei Surovikin, said that two launches of the Angara-A5 heavy launch vehicle and two launches of its light version are planned from the Plesetsk cosmodrome next year. According to him, the Angara-A5 rocket is currently being assembled, the launch date will be set on December 20.

https://iz.ru/1269468/2021-12-24/istochnik-soobshchil-o-perenose-puska-rakety-angara-a5

A5 3L on the pad, pic originally from a user on NK Forum



The launcher is noticeably taller than 1L or 2L, both of which carried Briz-M u/s.

The Angara rocket family should have replaced Soyuz and Proton IMHO but politics mean we'll still have a separate Soyuz launcher for whatever reason.

lancelot wrote:The Angara rocket family should have replaced Soyuz and Proton IMHO but politics mean we'll still have a separate Soyuz launcher for whatever reason.

No Angara variant is in the weight class of a Soyuz. A-1.2 is a light launcher (~3.8T to LEO), while the next largest (the unbuilt A-3) lifts ~14.6T.  Soyuz 2 delivers between 7-8.2 to lEO depending on variant.

Angara was never intended to replace Soyuz.

So you are basically saying a launcher needs to have the exact same payload capacity to be a replacement?
Angara is or was supposed to be the launch vehicle for the next generation crewed capsule and there are versions with less and more capacity than Soyuz.
The Angara A3 would have been close enough in performance it wouldn't matter. And it has more performance with three first stage engines instead of five.
Those engines also have single nozzles instead of quad nozzles.
I bet it has way less parts for more performance.

Angara A3 has first stage power thrust about as close to Soyuz as you can get.

"Angara-A5" during tests successfully delivered into space the upper stage "Perseus" with a satellite mock-up - Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Moscow. 27th of December. INTERFAX - The orbital block as part of the Perseus upper stage (RB) and the overall mass model of the payload separated from the third stage of the Angara-A5 heavy launch vehicle launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"In 12 minutes after the launch, the orbital block as part of the Perseus upper stage and the non-detachable overall mass model of the payload separated from the third stage of the Angara-A5 LV," the military department said.

They noted that further insertion of the orbital block into the target geostationary orbit will be carried out with the help of the Perseus missile launcher according to a typical nine-hour three-pulse scheme with four starts of the main engine of the upper stage.

"At the estimated time, in the radio visibility zone of the ground-based automated control complex of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces in the established areas of the Komi Republic, the Tomsk region and the water area of ​​the Philippine Sea, there was a separation of the I, II and III stages and the discharge of the ILV head fairing (space rockets - IF) "Angara-A5" ", - said the military.

Nice!!          

source

Anatoly Zak is reporting that the Persei u/s has failed its 2nd burn...

According to a reliable report on the Russian Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum, Persei upper stage in today's Angara mission failed to perform its 2nd of three firings, which means that it is left stranded in a low parking orbit with a short life span unless engine is restarted...

On the bright side, all URM-1 and 2 booster stages of the Angara rocket appeared to work well (for the 4th time) and no real satellite was lost in a purported Persei failure. I guess this is one of those "that's why they test":

Source: There is no chance for continuing the Angara's test flight beyond the initial low orbit due to the main engine failure on the Persei space tug.

Hopefully they can sort out the problem, but in any case the core A5 worked well

Big_Gazza wrote:Anatoly Zak is reporting that the Persei u/s has failed its 2nd burn...

Source: There is no chance for continuing the Angara's test flight beyond the initial low orbit due to the main engine failure on the Persei space tug.

Hopefully they can sort out the problem, but in any case the core A5 worked well

Well, the DM block already has cases of similar accidents just during the second pulse. Last time it was caused by a leak in the sealing elements of the turbopump, which led to destabilization of the thermal regime and burnout of one of the valves. Perhaps this is some kind of constructive disease that will require additional improvements to the upper stage to eliminate it.

DM-03/RD-58 has been built and flown very infrequently, so perhaps Energia (or Voronezh) has had issues with maintaining the technical competencies of their personnel?

In any case, Briz-M works well, but it is disappointing nonetheless.

This is key here. Angara worked. It flew and did its job. The test of Perseus failed. Why? Well, hopefully we will learn soon enough.

Russia tests hydrogen-oxygen engine for Angara A5 rocket for the first time, 29.12.2021.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian space corporation Roscomos conducted the first test of the hydrogen-oxygen engine for the Angara A5 rocket.

"On December 29 at the test facility of the Voronezh rocket propellant construction center (...) a test was carried out using the fuel of the RD-0146D1 rocket engine, which is being designed at the corporation for the KVTK propellant block [Russian acronym for the upper stage of liquid oxygen-hydrogen] of the Angara A5 heavy carrier rocket," says the Roscomos statement.

The note emphasizes that the ignition of the engine, its operation in different modes, as well as the shutdown of the propeller were carried out "according to the test program".

It also indicates that the technology of this engine will improve "the energy characteristics of the Angara A5 rocket", and, in addition, could be used in "other promising projects".

The manufacturer Viktor Gorokhov, quoted in the note, stressed that the tested propellant is 20% more powerful than the previous version of the hydrogen-oxygen engine.

Yandex Translate from Spanish

https://mundo.sputniknews.com/20211229/rusia-prueba-por-primera-vez-un-motor-de-hidrogeno-oxigeno-para-el-cohete-angara-a5-1119859403.html

The Roscosmos enterprise has carried out the first test of a forced oxygen-hydrogen engine for the new upper stage of the rocket #АнгараА5 : https://roscosmos.ru

Rocket Turning on the engine, working in the specified modes, as well as stopping were carried out in accordance with the set program

This is very important news. With the hydrogen-powered KBTK, the carrying capacity of the heavy Angara from the Vostochny cosmodrome will exceed 30 tons. By the way, the Angara universal launch complex being built at this cosmodrome also includes a hydrogen refueling infrastructure.
They are already waiting for KBTK.

Edit: Roscosmos published the video of the test firing:

https://www.mk.ru/science/2021/12/29/20tonnyy-persey-mozhet-obrushitsya-na-zemlyu-posle-novogo-goda.html

The block DM-03 Persei upper stage with the mass simulator attached is expected to re-enter atmosphere in the next couple of days.

What is the status of this mission shown on Roscosmos website can anybody translate: https://www.roscosmos.ru/launch/2021/

What does Выводится translates to?

owais.usmani wrote:What is the status of this mission shown on Roscosmos website can anybody translate: https://www.roscosmos.ru/launch/2021/

What does Выводится translates to?

To be introduced.

OK, guys, I'll just remind you: both cases of payload loss this year (the previous one was after the launch of Soyuz-2 in September) are associated with launches from Plesetsk - that is, Rogozin's influence on these launches was minimal, since these were operations conducted under the control of the Ministry of Defense.

I thought the entire angara is a self contained system. Why do they need to put stages from other manufacturers? Thankfully, the much more used briz is extremely reliable so its not a setback if the persei failed. Since it was the persei that failed and not the angara, does this mean there will be no launch delays for the next angara launches?

I think Persei was advocated as part of the elimination of hypergolics for environmental and HSE reasons.  Maybe also as part of the Russian tradition of wanting backups in case problems develop with one system. Blok-DM2/3 had both flown on the Proton-M, along with Briz-M, so it makes sense to use it.

I don't expect there will be any delays in Angara A-5 flights due to the failure of the inaugural Persei test.

Edit: The following backs up this assessment

The Ministry of Defense plans to launch three Angars in 2022, a source said.

MOSCOW, December 31 - RIA Novosti. Ministry of Defense of Russia plans to carry out in 2022 from the cosmodrome Plesetsk launch three rockets "Angara" , which will lead to orbit satellites for various purposes, RIA Novosti learned from an informed source.

"In 2022, it is planned to launch three Angara launch vehicles - two heavy Angara-A5 and one light Angara-1.2. They will launch operating spacecraft for various purposes into orbit; there are no plans to launch payload mockups anymore," - said the interlocutor of the agency.

According to him, "the Briz-M serial upper stage will be used as part of the heavy rockets to launch the payload into the geostationary orbit."

https://ria.ru/20211231/angara-1766257058.html

PapaDragon wrote:

Scorpius wrote:OK, guys, I'll just remind you: both cases of payload loss this year (the previous one was after the launch of Soyuz-2 in September) are associated with launches from Plesetsk - that is, Rogozin's influence on these launches was minimal, since these were operations conducted under the control of the Ministry of Defense.

Ministry of Defence manufactures upper stages?

They perform a full cycle of pre-launch operations and startup. This is enough to identify and eliminate most defects. So, if there was some omission that led to the failure of Perseus, it is the fault of the Ministry of Defense. If this is a critical design flaw, this is again a problem unrelated to Rogozin. The DM block had already experienced similar problems long before Rogozin had anything to do with the leadership of Roscosmos.