The developer and manufacturer of the Angara family of missiles, the Moscow Khrunichev Center, has been allocated 20.6 billion rubles for the creation of an oxygen-hydrogen heavy class (KTVK) upper stage for the heavy Angara, RIA Novosti reports, referring to the government procurement website.
Roskosmos will allocate the appropriate funds for the manufacture of a model, prototypes and testing. These works should be completed by December 2025.
Also, according to the agency, “Roskosmos” will allocate more than a billion rubles for “the development of a preliminary design for a space complex with a manned transport vehicle and a heavy-class launch vehicle.” Before the current general director of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin headed the state corporation in May 2018, the Russian Federation, which he renamed Oryol, was planned to be launched on the Soyuz-5 medium-heavy rocket.
The second test launch of the Angara-A5 heavy missile in six years took place on 14 December. The first start of the heavy “Angara-A5” took place on December 23, 2014. The first and only time the light Angara-A1.2 flew on July 9 of the same year.
The Angara missiles are developed and manufactured by the Khrunichev Center, the most problematic and unprofitable enterprise of Roscosmos. One of the company's failed projects is the development of the Angara family of launch vehicles, which in the heavy version should replace the Proton-M. The creation of missiles has been going on for more than a quarter of a century and has already required more than three billion dollars (according to other estimates, more than five). The KBTK upper stage, designed to increase the carrying capacity of the heavy “Angara”, has been created by the Khrunichev Center since 2009. Also, KBTK can receive a super-heavy rocket “Yenisei”.
