(The Angara 1.2PP rocket on the Plesetsk Cosmodrome launch pad – Photo Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense)
The highly anticipated first flight of Russia’s Angara launcher was cancelled after engineers discovered a technical problem during the final minutes of the launch countdown.
The Angara rocket was scheduled to lift off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia on June 27th however automated control systems detected ‘technical issues’ which forced the rocket’s onboard computer to abort the launch during the final countdown.
The launch was originally delayed by 24 hours and rescheduled for June 28th, however the Saturday attempt has now been called off. A new launch date remains unknown.
The Angara rocket is the first newly designed space vehicle manufactured by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
(Angara-1.2PP getting refueled – Photo Credit: RIA Novosti / Vitaly Belousov)
“This is the first launch vehicle that has been developed and built from scratch in Russia,” said Igor Lissov, an expert on the space industry “Everything else we have is a modernization of our Soviet legacy.”
Angara is said to have been developed as an environmentally-friendly rocket however this new generation of rockets is also exclusively designed for strategic purposes.
Designed to launch payloads weighing up to 25 tons, Russia has been working on the Angara rocket for over 20 years with hopes that it would become a possible commercial rival to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the launch vehicles used from Arianespace in France.
Russian President Vladimir Putin aims to modernize the country’s aerospace industry and begin launching their own space missions. Angara is specifically designed to lift off from the Russian Plesetsk launch site as well as the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a new facility currently under construction in the Russian Far East. This is part of an attempt by Russia to reduce its dependence on Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Roscosmos currently rents for all Russian manned and unmanned space launches.
However, the Angara project has been suffering from long delays and spiralling costs.
Khrunichev Space Center, the company who build Angara, also manufacture the Proton rocket, a vehicle known for experiencing an embarrassing series of launch failures.
There are concerns the Angara rocket could experience similar difficulties.
“There is absolutely no guarantee that Angara, which is built by the same industry, by the same company, by the same people, will be immune to these problems,” says Anatoly Zak, editor of the Russianspaceweb industry website.
The Solar System & Beyond 