Article Posted on : - Jan 28, 2011

MOSCOW (BNS): The new generation Angara booster rocket will be ready for a test launch by 2012, according to Russia's space force commander Oleg Ostapenko.

"We plan that it will be fully prepared for launch in 2012," Ria Novosti quoted Ostapenko as saying.

He said everything was going according to plan.

The Angara rocket is a family of space-launch vehicles currently under development by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.

The rockets are designed to provide lifting capabilities between 2,000 and 40,500 kg into low earth orbit. It has a modular design similar to the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), based on a common Universal Rocket Module (URM).

The Angara is intended mainly for launch from the Plesetsk space center to reduce Moscow's dependence on Kazakhstan's Baikonur, the main launch facility for the current generation of Russian rockets. It is expected to become the core of Russia's carrier rocket fleet replacing the existing line of Rockot and Proton launch vehicles.