Angara-A5 flew only once in 2014The launch of a heavy rocket Angara-A5″ took place from the Plesetsk cosmodrome (Arkhangelsk region) of the Russian Ministry of Defense today, on at 08:50 Moscow time. The carrier must launch a 2.4-ton cargo into geostationary orbit, presumably of no practical use. The launch was the second for the Angara-A5 and the third for the Angara missiles. The first and only launch of the light Angara-1.2PP (PP – first launch) took place on July 9, 2014, from Plesetsk.
The missile flew along a ballistic trajectory to the area of the Kura training ground in Kamchatka. The flight lasted 21 minutes, during which the carrier, together with an inseparable load model weighing 1.43 tons, covered 5.7 thousand kilometers. The first launch of Angara-A5 with the upper stage Briz-M and a cargo model weighing 2 tons took place December 23 of the same year, also from Plesetsk. According to various sources, the booster and the cargo mockup, which is inseparable from it, were launched into a geostationary or geostationary orbit.
The Launches Of Angara-a5 Are Systematically Disrupted By Roscosmos
In November, TASS, referring to a source in the rocket and space industry, reported that on the Angara-A5 already taken to the launch pad an underestimated insulation resistance between the second and third blocks was revealed as a result of which the carrier was removed from the site, and the launch postponed to December. The interlocutor noted that this problem was not identified during the checks preceding the installation of the rocket on the launchpad. In August, the general director of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, during a report to Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov at the Army-2020 forum, promised that this launch vehicle would start in November. The Angara-A5 launch is postponed regularly. For example, back in August 2018, Rogozin, in May of the same year appointed to the post of general director of the state corporation, said that flight tests of Angara will continue in 2019.
Angara-a5 Does Not Meet The Requirements Of The Ministry Of Defense
In November, the chief designer of the Angara complex, Dmitry Petrov, said that the heavy carriers of the first and second flight tests did not differ structurally from each other. In October, Rogozin said that the first flight test of the Angara-A5 carried out in 2014 ” did not confirm the customer’s requirements, as the mass to be removed was lower than necessary. In March, the manager announced that Angara-A5 will undergo modernization. During his visit to the Polet Production Association (PO) (Omsk branch of the Khrunichev Center), Rogozin said that it had been decided to immediately
open work to lighten the rocket and increase its thrust-to-weight ratio. In particular, the new “Angara-A5M” should differ from the old “Angara-A5” by the upgraded RD-191M engine of increased carrying capacity. In August, Igor Arbuzov, the general director of the Energomash Research and Production Association (NPO), admitted that the first development model of the RD-191M could be ready no earlier than the end of 2021.
The Angara Turns Out To Be Extremely Expensive
According to the financial report of the Khrunichev Center for 2019 published in June, the cost of production of Angara-A5 is seven billion rubles, which is three times more expensive than the heavy Proton-M rocket, which it will have to replace. In May 2019, according to the SPARK-Marketing system, it became known that the Angara-1.2 light rocket was 1.5 times more expensive than the Soyuz-2.1a and Soyuz-2.1b medium carriers. In July, the former CEO, ex-designer of the Khrunichev Center Vladimir Nesterov, explained reasons for the high cost of Angara-A5,Wages, electricity, gas, heat, overhead costs, transport services need to be entered somewhere. And when a three-fold manufacturing cycle is hung on one product, naturally, its price triples. In 2012, General of the Army in reserve Vladimir Popovkin estimated the number of funds already spent on the development of the Angara at $ 5.33 billion.
The Angara and its planned modernization are outdated. The order to start work on the Angara family was signed by the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin on January 6, 1995. The work plan for the project, approved by a government decree of August 26, 1995, provided for the readiness of the rocket by 2005. Angara began to be created by the Khrunichev Center almost at the same time when work began on the heavy carriers Atlas V and Delta IV in the United States, the operation of which will end in the first half of the 2020s. The place of heavy single-use carriers in the United States has already been taken or will be partially taken by the reusable carriers Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, New Glenn, and Vulcan (in the future), as well as the fully reusable Starship transport system. require more and more funding (the first launch of the Delta IV Medium + rocket, which made its first launch in November 2002, had already initially used exclusively hydrogen and oxygen engines).
The Angara On Vostochny Demands More And More Money
In September 2019, Rogozin and Yevgeny Rogoza, who was fired in October of this year for embezzlement, was then head of the Roscosmos directorate for the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome, announced that the construction of a launchpad for the Angara at this cosmodrome would cost 38 billion rubles. The corresponding technological equipment will require another 27.5 billion rubles. The first launch of the Angara from Vostochny is scheduled for 2023.
The failure of the Angara is explained by the problems of the Khrunichev Center
In August 2018, Rogozin stated that the main negative financial and economic problems inherited by the new administration of the state corporation boil down to the debt of the Khrunichev Center, which then exceeded 100 billion rubles, and the lack of industrial cooperation, allegedly creating conditions for abuse by several leaders enterprises. Thirdly, earlier the state corporation lived on funds received from foreign economic activity, more specifically, from the sale of seats to the Americans for flights to the ISS (International Space Station approx. on our ships. Now this money has dried up, and the corporation receives little dividends the manager admitted. Currently, the United States has stopped purchasing seats on Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz MS and has developed a replacement for the RD-180 rocket engines produced by NPO Energomash, which are used in Atlas V.
Roscosmos Shifts the Problems of the Khrunichev Center to Successful Enterprises
From Roskosmos conducted 15 launches of space rockets. Of these, 13 launches were provided by the Soyuz-2 medium launch vehicles of the Samara Rocket and Space Center (RSC) Progress, and only two – by the Khrunichev Center’s heavy rockets (Proton-M and Angara-A5). After Rogozin took over as head of the state corporation, the Khrunichev Center was introduced into joint projects of the Moscow Region Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia and the RSC Progress the super-heavy launch vehicle the Yenisei, created by the latter, should receive KBTK, and their medium-heavy rocket Soyuz-5 (Irtysh) has lost the Federation (Eagle ) manned spacecraft, which is now planned to be launched on the Angara-A5P. Currently, at the Progress RCC there are massive redundancies, and Roskosmos withdraws money from this enterprise. In July 2018, Rogozin announced the merger of the profitable Progress RCC and the unprofitable Khrunichev Center into production cooperation. We need to quickly adopt a plan for the financial recovery of the Khrunichev Center the manager explained his decision.
