MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax) - The first launch of an Angara-A5 heavy rocket from Vostochny Cosmodrome has been aborted again, according to the Roscosmos stream.
"The launch has been cancelled. Work supervisors prepare for 24-hour standstill," the Roscosmos stream announcer said.
The first Angara-A5 launch from Vostochny was initially planned for 12 p.m. on April 9, but was aborted. Roscosmos head Yury Borisov said that the Angara-A5 launch from Vostochny was cancelled by the automatic system two minutes before the launch due to a failure of the pressurization system in the central unit's oxidizer tank. He said the launch was moved to the alternate date, April 10.
The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center is the lead developer and manufacturer of Angara rockets, but production is being moved from Moscow to the Polyot Plant in Omsk, which is also part of Khrunichev. Borisov said on February 1 that Polyot might be able to assemble around eight Angara-A5 heavy rockets per year after the end of its renovation.
The Russian Defense Ministry is the main consumer of Angara rockets.
The Angara family is due to replace Proton-M rockets, which have been in operation since the mid-1960s. The upgraded Proton-M has been used for carrying payloads to orbit since 2001.
The Angara is a family of Russian rockets with various lifting capacities based on universal rocket modules and powered by oxygen-kerosene engines. The family ranges from light to heavy, with a lifting capacity from 3.5 tonnes (Angara-1.2) to 38 tonnes (Angara-A5V) brought to low-Earth orbit.