ANGARA

The Angara Family

Angara Configurations

Angara Components

Angara Flight Log

Angara, named after a fast-flowing 1,800 km long Siberian river, is Russia's first entirely post-Soviet space launch vehicle.  Khrunichev State Research and Production Center is developing a family of Angara launchers to replace existing Proton and Rokot boosters.   The cash-starved, start-stop development effort officially began during the mid-1990s, but progress toward a planned inaugural launch in 2010-2011 only became apparent during the early 2000s, with inaugural launches finally taking place during 2014.

An ability to launch Russian payloads from a Russian launch site using an all-Russian rocket was an important aspect of the Angara development.  The powerful Zenit launcher was partially manufactured in Ukraine.  Krunichev's Proton only flies from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  Angara is built in Russia and flies from Russia's Plestesk Northern Cosmodrome.

A desire to replace toxic hypergolic propellants with less hazardous, less polluting kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) was also a factor, especially after a series of Proton failures caused ecological damage in Kazakhstan.

Angara's first stage is built around basic "Universal Rocket Module" (URM) building blocks, with each block powered by a single-chamber 196 tonne thrust RD-191 LOX/kerosene engine.  RD-191 is derived from the four-chamber Energomash RD-171 engine that powered the Zenit launcher. 

The smallest Angara variants (Angara 1.1 and Angara 1.2) will use one URM.  The most powerful variant, Angara 5, will use a cluster of five URMs.  A medium Angara 3 launcher using three URMs is also possible, but may not be immediately developed in the wake of Lockheed Martin's sale of its International Launch Services (ILS) consortium share.  ILS was reportedly interested in Angara 3, but the R-7 Soyuz system can already handle payloads in that range for Russian needs.

Angara adapts several existing Russian space systems for its own use.  A 30 tonne thrust LOX/kerosene RD-0124 engine powers the second stage of all but the smallest Angara version.  This staged-combustion engine has already been developed to power the upgraded Soyuz-2 third stage.    Briz-KM, developed for use on Rokot, will serve as the Angara 1.1 second stage and as the third stage for Angara 1.2.  The Briz-M stage previously developed to fly atop Proton-M boosters serves as the upper stage for the Angara 3 and 5 vehicles.  The Rokot payload fairing will be used by Angara 1.1.  Angara 5 uses Proton payload fairings.

Future plans call for development of a liquid hydrogen fueled "KVRB" upper stage for Angara 5.  This stage would be powered by a single 10.5 tonne thrust KVD1M3 engine with a 461 sec specific impulse.

Angara 5 launch profiles keep the core URM engine throttled back so that the strap on URMs deplete their propellant first, about four minutes after liftoff.  The core URM then burns for another 89 to 111 seconds.

Payload capabilities extend from 2 metric tons (tonnes) to a 200 km x 63 deg low earth orbit (LEO) for Angara 1.1 to 24.5 tonnes for Angara 5 when launched from Plesetsk.  Angara 5 can lift 5.4 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) from Plesetsk with a Briz M upper stage.  Use of the KVRB stage would improve GTO performance to 6.6 tonnes or more.   

Launch Sites

Drawing of Angara 5 Horizontal at Launch Pad

Angara initially flew from Plesetsk, 800 km north of Moscow at 62.7 degrees North latitude, using a new "Area 35" launch site built atop an unfinished Zenit complex that was abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union.  In the future, Angara may also fly from Vostochny, Russia's under-construction Eastern Cosmodrome, a lower latitude launch site that would allow heavier payloads to be orbited, especially to geosynchronous orbit. 

Construction work on the Plesetsk pad resumed during the early 2000s.  In July 2006, the massive Angara launch platform was delivered in pieces to Plesetsk.  The 14 by 14 meter by 5 meter tall launch table weighed 1,185 tonnes.  Like other Russian launchers, Angara is horizontally processed using rail-based transporter-erectors.   Unlike other Russian launchers, payload/launch vehicle integration for Angara 1.1 and 1.2 may be performed at the launch pad.  Launch pad payload integration might also be performed during some Angara 5 campaigns. 

In 2004, Russia and Kazakhstan agreed to develop an Angara launch site at Baikonur.  A joint development project named "Bayterek" was set up to build the launch site.  A mothballed Proton pad at Baikonur's Site 200 Pad 40 was originally considered for the project, but according to some reports Site 250, the abandoned Energia launch pad, was also considered.  By the end of 2012, after Russia's government had decided to build an Angara pad at Vostochny, the Bayterek project had been quietly shelved.   

KSLV

KSLV-1 at Naro

The first Angara family vehicle to fly was two-stage KSLV-1 (Korean Space Launch Vehicle), which consisted of an Angara-derived first stage topped by a small solid fuel second stage developed by South Korea's Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).  The 28.5 by 2.9 meter, 140 tonne first stage was very similar to Angara's URM-1, except that it was powered by an Energomash RD-151 engine that produced 170 tonnes of liftoff thrust.  RD-151 was a lower-pressure, lower-thrust version of 196 tonne thrust RD-191.

Russia's KBTM developed the KSLV-1 launch systems, which included a wheeled horizontal transporter that drove the assembled missile to a fixed erector system at the pad only two days prior to launch.   Autocoupler systems similar to those used by Angara were employed to simplify vehicle set up on the pad.  Construction of the launch site at Naro, South Korea began in 2003.  The Center included the launch pad, a launch control building, a vehicle assembly building, and test stands.

The first KSLV-1 launch took place on August 25, 2009.  It was an attempt to boost STSat-2, a 100 kg test satellite, into a 306 x 1,500 km near polar orbit. The first stage portion of the ascent was successful, but one of the two payload fairing halves failed to separate. Orbital velocity could not be attained.

The second KSLV-1 failed on June 10, 2010. A "flash" was seen and telemetry was lost 137 seconds into the flight, about 60% of the way into the burn of the vehicle's Energomash RD-151 first stage engine. The cause of the failure was not immediately apparant, and the Russian and South Korean teams disagreed about the cause.  The rocket was carrying a second engineering test satellite named STSat-2B.  

A third attempt, on January 30, 2013, finally produced success.  The final planned KSLV-1 successfully orbited South Korea's STSAT-2C satellite from Naro.  The flight added South Korea to the list of 13 countries that have hosted orbital launches.  STSAT-2C separated into a 296 x 1,513 km x 80.3 deg orbit about nine minutes after liftoff.

Vehicle Development and Flight Testing

Early Angara 1.1 Prototype at Khrunichev

Angara development began in 1994, when Krunichev beat Energia in a competition to build the new launcher.  Development proceeded slowly until 2001, when NPO Energomash performed the first test-firing of an RD-191 engine.  By October 2006, ten RD-191 tests had been performed.  Engine development was scheduled to be completed in 2009. 

RD-0124 development testing began in 1996 for Soyuz-2.  Testing was completed in 2004 at Khimavtomatika in Voronezh.  The first Soyuz-2-1b flight with an RD-0124 third stage engine took place during December, 2006.

In August 2006, Roskosmos officials announced that the first Angara test flight was planned to occur in 2010 or 2011.   The first test launch would be performed by an Angara 1.1 from Plesetsk.  The launch date subsequently slipped into 2014 due to launch site preparation delays, funding issues, and second stage design changes that enlarged the stage.   

Also in August 2006, Khrunichev and PO Polyot agreed to build Angara booster stages at the PO Polyot facility in Omsk, Russia, where Kosmos 3M and Rokot launchers had been assembled.  As part of the agreement, PO Polyot would merge with Khrunichev.   Other work would presumably be performed at Krunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow where Proton assembly currently takes place.

NZh Test Vehicle at Plesetsk 35/1 During 2013 or 2014

A URM-1 first stage test vehicle was test fired during 2009.  A URM-1 also performed successfully during the first launch of South Korea's KSLV launch vehicle during that year. 

The first launch was to be performed by an Angara-1.2.PP, using a second stage with a non-standard diameter.  An Angara 5 launch would occur several months later.   The first flight vehicle was move by rail to Plesetsk during late May, 2013.   A test stand prototype vehicle named NZh was also shipped to Plesetsk.  It was designed to support electrical and propellant loading tests of the new launch pad.  NZh had a full-size URM-2 second stage, so that it replicated a standard Angara 1.2 launch vehicle.     Prior to shipment, this prototype was used for static, dynamic, and electrical testing near Moscow.

The NZh test vehicle was rolled out and erected at Plesetsk Area 35 Pad 1 on November 25, 2013.  This first rollout was used to test the rail mobile erector and to perform basic mechanical fit checks.  The rocket rolled out a second time on February 14, 2014 for a more substantial test series.  At the time, plans called for the first Angara 1.2.PP to fly in mid-2014 with Angara A5 to follow at year's end.

Russia's Angara Flies from Plesetsk

After a two decade long, stop-start development program, Russia's new LOX/kerosene fueled Angara rocket performed its first test launch from Russian soil on July 9, 2014. The suborbital flight from Plesetsk Cosmodrome was made by an Angara 1.2PP, a special two-stage version specifically prepared by Khrunichev for this inaugural test. The launch should herald the start of a new modular launch vehicle family capable of lifting a range of payloads ranging from light to heavy.

Angara 1.2PP (PP for Pervy Polyot, or "First Flight") consisted of a 2.9 meter diameter URM-1 (Universal Rocket Module) first stage topped by a 3.6 meter diameter URM-2 second stage. Heavy lifter Angara 5, planned to fly later this year, will use five clustered URM-1 modules topped by a URM-2 second stage, so the flight served served as an Angara 5 precursor test. The 171 tonne, 42.8 meter tall white rocket lifted off from Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 35/1 at 12:00 UTC, rising slowly on 196 tonnes of thrust produced by a single Energomash RD-191 staged combustion engine.

First stage burnout was expected to occur about 3 minutes, 39 seconds after launch, as Angara headed east across Russia's missile test range. Stage separation was planned to occur about 3 seconds later, followed 2 seconds after that by ignition of the 30 tonne thrust RD-0124A second stage engine. This staged-combustion, four-chamber engine, similar to the engine developed to power the upgraded Soyuz-2-1b upper stage, was expected to perform a 4 minute 28 second burn to boost the stage and instrumented test payload to near-orbital velocity with an apogee of nearly 190 km. The rocket's 2.9 meter diameter payload fairing was to separate shortly after second stage ignition.

According to official Russian media, the remains of the stage and payload impacted the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula about 21 minutes after liftoff, some 5,700 km downrange.

The launch took place after an aborted launch attempt on June 27 that was caused by a loss of pressure in the first stage LOX tank.  That, like most non-defense launch attempts, was broadcast live to Russian citizens and to the world, but such long-standard live coverage was not provided for both the June 8 Meteor M2 launch and the inaugural Angara launch.

After the second stage burned out at about the 12 minute 15 second mark (it fell into the western Pacific Ocean), the first Briz-M burn inserted the stage and payload into a low earth orbit with a 63 deg inclination. Subsequent burns moved the vehicle into an initial elliptical transfer orbit. The fourth burn circularized the orbit at geosynchronous altitude.  A fifth burn then moved the vehicle out of the geostationary belt into a "graveyard orbit". 

Angara, named after a fast-flowing 1,800 km long Siberian river, is Russia's first entirely post-Soviet space launch vehicle. After a two decade long, stop-start development program, a single-core Angara variant performed the program's first test launch from Russian soil on July 9, 2014. That suborbital flight from Plesetsk Cosmodrome was made by a two-stage Angara 1.2PP, heralding the start of the new modular launch vehicle family capable of lifting payloads ranging from light to heavy.

Angara A5 will be able to lift 24.5 tonnes to a 200 km x 63 deg low earth orbit (LEO), or 5.4 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) from Plesetsk with a Briz M upper stage. Use of a projected high energy KVRB stage could improve GTO performance to 6.6 tonnes. Angara A5's LEO capability is currently only exceeded by the RS-68A powered version of Delta 4 Heavy. The new rocket family is not expected to be completely certified for use until 2020, when it will likely begin to replace the long-lived Proton family. Angara will eventually fly from Russia's new, under-construction launch site at Vostochny Cosmodrome.

Vehicle Configurations

Vehicle Components

Angara Launch Log
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DATE     VEHICLE           ID     PAYLOAD                MASS(t) SITE*    ORBIT**
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07/09/14 Angara 1.2PP             Suborbital Test                PL 35/1  SUB [1]
12/23/14 Angara A5/Briz M  A5-1   GVM Test Flight          2.0   PL 35/1  GEO [2]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Inaugural 2-stage Angara 1.2 suborbital test flight to Kura range.
[2] First Angara A5.  Four Briz M burns with mass simulator to GEO, then fifth 
     burn to graveyard orbit.
=================================================================================

References

"Angara User's Guide", International Launch Services, 2002
"Angara/Proton Update", International Launch Services, 2013

Last Update:  December 23, 2014
by:  Ed Kyle