YEKATERINBURG. Sept 15 (Interfax) - Testing of the control system for Russia's Soyuz-5 launch vehicle (LV) will begin simultaneously with the rocket's flight tests, scheduled to start in December 2023, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said.
"The actual testing of all control systems on board the Soyuz-5 will begin when the flight tests of the rocket itself start. This will happen in December 2023," Rogozin told reporters on Wednesday in response to a question from Interfax.
"We hope that a contract between our center for the operation of ground-based space infrastructure and the Kazakh construction company will be signed before the end of September, and the modernization of the launch pad will start. I talk to the directors over the phone every day in order to finalize all these pre-contractual procedures. As a matter of fact, it will be the launch pad for the Soyuz-5," Rogozin said.
Automatics scientific and production association general director Andrei Misyura said in April that tests of the control system for the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle would start in 2021.
The main designer of the Soyuz-5 medium-lift launch vehicle, dubbed Irtysh, is the Energia Corporation. Its test launches are slated for 2022-2025. This two-stage rocket is being developed as part of the Fenix research and development project and will be powered by an RD-171MV engine. It will be launched from the former Zenit LV launch site at Baikonur Cosmodrome as a joint project with Kazakhstan. The Soyuz-5 is capable of delivering up to 17 tonnes of payload to a parking orbit.