According to RIA-Novosti, light class booster “Angara” launch is planned for mid-2014, and by the end of the next year – the launch of its heavy version, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov told jounalists on Monday.
Earlier Monday, Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu said that the Defense Ministry will follow the progress of “Angara” complex creation. Earlier Major-General Alexander Golovko, who served as a chief of the “Plesetsk” cosmodrome, reported that the test of a new booster was to be completed in 2012. Light class rocket launch was planned for 2013.
“A new work schedule is coordinated today, its implementation is taken under the personal control of the commander of the military space defense troops and me personally. General designer of the Khrunichev SRPSC is on site in Plesetsk, monitoring the progress of work. The number of workers was increased from 400 up to 600 people,” – Borisov said after a conference call in the Defense Ministry.
The deputy minister said that the launch of the light class booster “Angara” is scheduled in the middle of next year and for the end the following year a heavy class booster launch is planned. According to him, two weeks after the new schedule was set there are no delays. “Everything is going according to the newly approved schedule. It is believed that the planned dates for the creation of the complex will be fulfilled,” – said Borisov.
The development of the new booster has started in 1995. On the basis of its basic unit – URM (Universal Rocket Module) – it is expected to create a whole family of boosters of different classes, which will be able, in particular, to replace the rocket “Proton”.
