Russia aborts second attempt to launch a heavy-lift rocket from Far East

MOSCOW — Russia failed for a second straight day Wednesday to test-launch a brand new heavy-lift rocket from its Far Japanese area complicated. Officers have scheduled an additional launch try for Thursday.

The primary try and launch the Angara-A5 rocket from the Vostochny spaceport on Tuesday was canceled about two minutes earlier than the scheduled liftoff as a result of a failure of the pressurization system of the oxidizer tank within the central block of the rocket.

The second tried launch Wednesday was additionally aborted by the automated security system, which registered a flaw within the engine begin management mechanism, mentioned Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s state-controlled area company Roscosmos. He added that the failure was most certainly rooted in a programming error.

Borisov famous that there have been no {hardware} points with the rocket that may necessitate spiking the launch, and mentioned that one other launch try was scheduled for Thursday.

The launch is to be the fourth for the Angara-A5, a heavy-lift model of the brand new Angara household of rockets that has been developed to switch the Soviet-designed Proton rockets.

The earlier three launches had been carried out from the Plesetsk launchpad in northwestern Russia.

After the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia leased the Baikonur Cosmodrome from Kazakhstan and continued to make use of it for many of its area launches. The settlement with Kazakhstan permits Russia to maintain leasing Baikonur for $115 million a yr by means of 2050.

Whereas Roscosmos has continued to depend on Baikonur, Russian authorities have developed Vostochny as the power of selection for Angara launches. The development of the brand new spaceport has dragged on for longer than deliberate and it has seen solely restricted use to date.

The event of the Angara-A-5, which is ready to be the principle launch automobile for Russia’s potential lunar analysis program, has additionally confronted repeated delays and dragged on years not on time.

Just like the Soviet-designed Proton it is set to switch, the brand new rocket is meant to launch intelligence and communication satellites to geostationary orbits.