First launch of Angara carrier rocket from Vostochny spaceport scheduled for 2023

The timing of the launch of the Angara rocket at Vostochny airport has not changed and is scheduled for 2023, said Head of State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV Channel in St. Petersburg. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2019) on Friday.

“Echelons of equipment are moving to that site [the Vostochny Cosmodrome] and we have started creating a foundation area and pouring the concrete. The timeframe [of the Angara’s first launch from the Vostochny] remains unchanged: we must necessarily carry out this launch in 2023,” Rogozin said.

Payload for the third rocket carrying the Angara-A5 will be selected by the end of June and this could be the Communications Express, the Rososcosmos official said. “The third Angara will be launched with a payload. I think we will finally decide on that by the end of the month. A proposal has been made to launch the Express,” Rogozin said, without specifying the satellite category.

The launch of Angara in December 2019 is necessary to test the rocket booster to see if it is compatible with the holding company, Roscosmos official said. The first launch of the Angara rocket took place in 2014 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The next explosion of the Angara heavy rocket is expected to take place in December 2019 and again from Plesetsk airport, as Rososcosmos previously announced. The Khrunichev Space Center reported in the summer of 2018 that it has already launched preparations for the aircraft.