The first launch of the Angara-A5 rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome was canceled

The first launch of the Angara-A5 heavy rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region was canceled. It was scheduled for April 9. Two minutes before the start, the command “Remove the starter, prepare the parking lot for 24 hours” was sounded.

The rocket was supposed to launch the Orion booster block with a test payload into orbit. The head of Roscosmos, Yury Borisov, stated that the cause of the cancellation of the launch was a “failure of the system of pressurizing the oxidizer tank of the central unit.”

The next launch request for “Angary-A5” will take place on April 10.

The State Space Research and Production Center named after M.V. Khrunycheva. Their main customer is the Ministry of Defense. The family includes launch vehicles of various payloads. It is assumed that in the future they will replace the Proton-M launch vehicles. Earlier tests of “Angara” took place at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk Region.

• Construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome began in 2012 in the Amur Region. In 2019, the press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, stated that 11 billion rubles were stolen during its construction. At the end of 2019, the prosecutor’s office announced that since the start of work on the cosmodrome, 163 criminal cases had been initiated, and the damage caused by criminals amounted to almost 21 billion rubles. Among the revealed violations are delaying construction deadlines and multibillion-dollar embezzlement of budget funds. About 60 people were convicted.