OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2014. Preparations are underway for flight tests of the Angara Space Launch System at the Plesetsk Launch Base, Arkhangelsk Region.
 
The launch of the Angara 1.2ПП (1.2PP) light-lift launch vehicle built for the maiden flight is expected to take place before the end of this year.
 
In compliance with the schedule, Angara 1.2PP was rolled out of the Integration-and-Test Facility and moved to the Angara Launch System’s Pad on 25 March.
 
According to the Press Service and Information Office, Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the vehicle is installed on the multi-purpose launch complex. Over the next six days, Cosmodrome’s engineers and technicians will carry out a sequence of electrical check-outs of the systems and mechanisms used by either the new launch vehicle or the Launch Complex’s equipment. Additionally, the readiness of the multi-purpose Launch Complex to support the first-ever launch will be verified.
 
The vehicle was earlier rolled out and to the Launch Complex in November 2013 for testing the item’s weight/dimensional properties whereas the test Angara 1.2PP version (specially designed for ground tests) passed experiments at the Angara launch pad in last February.

The construction of the Angara Launch System’s terrestrial infrastructure to support processing and launches of space-oriented vehicles has been conducted under the Federal Goal-Oriented Program ‘Development of Russian Cosmodromes 2006 – 2015’ while work aimed at the design and building of a new launch vehicle has been carried out within the framework of the State Armament Program and the Federal Space Program of Russia 2006 – 2015.
 
The Angara Launch System is essentially a new generation of modularized launch vehicles to be built around common rocket core modules (URMs) using the URM 1 or URM 2 LOX/kerosene engines. The Angara family includes light- to heavy-lift boosters with a LEO-mission lift capability of 1500 to 35,000 kg (the latter figure applies to Angara A7).
 
The state-run Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center is the Angara Launch System General Designer/Manufacturer, with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Federal Space Agency being governmental customers.