Rogozin Says Russia Will Not Develop Angara-A3 Medium-Class Launcher

Roscosmos will not create the medium-class variant of the Angara rocket, as the carrier with the similar load capacity is already being developed, Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin said Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st April, 2019) Roscosmos will not create the medium-class variant of the Angara rocket, as the carrier with the similar load capacity is already being developed, Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin said Monday.

"Angara-A3 is a medium-class rocket with a carrying capacity of 17 tonnes in a low orbit. The Soyuz-5 rocket has the same characteristics. Therefore, it makes sense to focus on the light and heavy variants of Angara," Rogozin said.

Rogozin also explained Roscosmos' lagging behind with the development of the methane-fueled engine for reusable launcher vehicles by the necessity to direct funds to paying off the debts of the Khrunichev Research and Production Center.

"[The engine project] can really be achieved within a couple of years, but we need funds for that, and all of our available funds are invested in the program of financial rehabilitation of the Khrunichev Center," Rogozin said.

Last July, Russia's major space rocket engine manufacturer JSC NPO Energomash said it had started to design the county's first methane-fueled engine, designated as RD-169.

Energomash chief Igor Arbuzov said back then that the engine could be tested as early as in 3-4 years.

The two-stage Soyuz-5 rocket will be around 160 feet tall with a payload capacity of up to 25 metric tons and is expected to serve as the base of a Russian prospective super-heavy rocket. It is set to take to orbit Russia's new Federation spacecraft, designed to deliver up to four people and cargo to the Moon and space stations into low Earth orbits.

The Angara family of environmentally-friendly vehicles, such as the light class Angara-1.2pp rocket and the heavy class Angara-A5 rocket, is designed to carry between two and 40 tonnes into low Earth orbit. It was the first orbit-capable rocket developed by Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union to replace the older Proton-M rockets.

A Russian space industry source told Sputnik in early March that the Defense Ministry planned to use the Angara-A5, able to carry up to 24.5 tonnes of payload, for the launches of its satellites from the new Vostochny space center in Russia's Far East.