Russia VKS launches Kosmos 2555 satellite using a light-class Angara Rocket
- Karthik Naren
- Apr 29, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 30, 2022
The launch is Angara 1.2's first flight to orbit.
April 29, 2022 the Angara-1.2 light class carrier rocket was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region with an EMKA №3 spacecraft (officially called Kosmos 2555), for the Russian Ministry of Defense. Angara-1.2 number 1L / 71602 took off from the “Northern Cosmodrome” at 19.55.22.612 UTC/ 22:55.22.612 Moscow time.
"The Combat Aerospace Forces successfully launched an Angara-1.2 light-class launch vehicle with a spacecraft in the interest of the Russian Ministry of Defense from the launch table.
Analysts speculate that the satellite was placed in a nearly circular Sun-Synchronous Orbit at an mean altitude of 300 km, with the latest EMKA orbit being 319 x 347 km, inclined at 96.64 degrees with a period of 90.94 minutes.
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, recalled that the same configuration rocket will carry the tests of the second stage from the eastern Vostochny cosmodrome. Angara-1.2PP has been released so far only once in July 2014 also from Plesetsk. Earlier on April 11, Rogozin, talking about plans, said that in December 2023 the light version of Angara will be launched from Vostochny, and the launch of another Angara-A5 rocket was also planned for this year.
Prior to that, on January 21, Rogozin reported that in 2022 at least two Angaras were planned to be launched. After January 25, the director of Roskosmos noted that the possibility of creating a version of the rocket, with five first-stage URM blocks was being raised.
The Angara is part of a family of Russian launch vehicles manufactured in Omsk by Polyot (part of Roskosmos' MV Khrunichev Center). The first Angara-1.2PP (14A125-01 No. 71601) was the first flying vehicle of the Angara family. It was successfully launched on July 9, 2014. This suborbital mission of a single-block configuration with parts from variations of the Angara-1 and Angara-A3 families served as a development demonstration prior to its operational use.
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