New Angara Carrier Rockets To Blast Off From Plesetsk Cosmodrome

Birth of a new family of Angara carrier rockets is in the interest of Russia's national security, said Alexander Medvedev in a RIA Novosti interview on Thursday. Medvedev is the general director of the Khrunichev space center, where Angara boosters are being developed. Medvedev explained that now heavy boosters can be launched only from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan. With the creation of new heavy Angara boosters an unfolding of a relative infrastructure on the Plesetsk cosmodrome Russia will get an opportunity to launch powerful rockets from its own territory. "This is important for independent work in the interest of the Russian Defense Ministry", stressed Medvedev. Today heavy Proton rockets, launched from Baikonur, are used for these ends. In perspective, Proton boosters are intended to be used mostly for commercial launches from Baikonur, as well as for the launch of spacecraft on Rosaviacosmos orders, said Medvedev. To him, a new modification, Proton-M with the Briz-M accelerator unit, will put into geostationary orbits non-military spacecraft of up to 5.1 meters in diameter and weighing up to 6 tonnes. Heavy military spacecraft will be launched by Angara boosters from Plesetsk.