The light-class Angara-1.2PP space rocket at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
9 July, 2014, By Andrew Hiller: WASHINGTON (VR) – It was an achievement years in the making. Today, Russia fielded a successful test of an Angara Rocket. The achievement is being heralded as one that might provide a powerful new energy that is “ecologically” clean. The Angara is the first space booster designed from scratch since the fall of the Soviet Union. It is propelled by paraffin and oxidized liquid oxygen. The achievement was noted by Russian President Vladimir Putin who acknowledged the significance the development of a new universal booster capable of varying layout orbit loads from 1.5 to 35 tons is. “Russia has been developing the Angara rocket for more than a decade and had been postponing their tests.” John Logsdon, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at George Washington University and the founder of the Elliott School’s Space Policy Institute said, “The fact that they have finally had a successful test is an important development in Russian space capability.” An official statement from the Ministry of Defense described the test of the Angara 1.2PP as a success: “After the 21st minute from launch the second stage of the rocket with a full-scale mock-up payload has arrived to Kura range in the Kamchatka Peninsula, some 5,700km from the point of launch.” Source: Voice of Russia
