“Angara-A5” launched the “Gagarinets” satellite into orbit – Kommersant

The Roscosmos state corporation reported that the Orion upper stage launched the Gagarinets small satellite into low Earth orbit. The block was launched by the Angara-A5 launch vehicle, which took off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome today.

“The Cubesat 3U format satellite was created by the Russian private company Avant Space and is intended to test elements of the service platform. The Orion upper stage continues to launch a test payload into a given orbit,” Roscosmos said in a statement. Telegram channel.

Initially, the launch of Angara-A5 was planned for December 2023, but was postponed to the first quarter of 2024. Launches scheduled for April 9 and 10 were canceled minutes before departure. As the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said, the first time this happened due to a failure in the pressurization system of the oxidizer tank of the central unit, and the second time due to a failure in the engine start control system.

Angara-A5 is the first rocket developed and created after the collapse of the USSR. The launch was the fourth in history for the rocket. The last three test launches took place from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. It is assumed that the modernized Angara-A5M will be used to send modules of the Russian orbital station into orbit and launch manned spacecraft to it.

Read more about the Angara-A5 rocket in material “Ъ”.