OREANDA-NEWS  The state commission has approved the readiness for the first launch of the Angara-A5 heavy-lift rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, according to Roscosmos on Thursday.

The launch of the Angara-A5 rocket with an Orion upper stage and a test payload is scheduled for 12pm Moscow time on April 11th from site 1A, according to the message.

Yesterday, the launch of the heavy-lift Angara-A5 from Vostochny was postponed for the second time. The rocket was supposed to carry the Orion upper stage with a test payload to orbit. According to Yuri Borisov, CEO of Roscosmos, the delay was due to a problem with the engine ignition system.

He said the launch will be repeated tomorrow at the same time, after the analysis of all the details and the approval of the state commission. "After the conclusion of the analysis and the approval, we will tentatively try again tomorrow at the same time", said Borisov on Wednesday.This will be the third attempt to launch the Angara-A5 launch vehicle. The first launch from Vostochny, which was scheduled for April 9th, was canceled due to a technical issue with the pressurization system in the oxidizer tank of the central rocket block. The head of Roscosmos stated that the cancellation occurred two minutes before the launch automatically. As a result, the launch was postponed to April 10th.

This will mark the fourth launch of the Angara-A5 in history. Previous tests were conducted from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The first test flight of Angara-A5 was on December 23rd, 2014. The second was on December 14th, 2020 and the third was on December 27th, 2021.The Angara family of rockets is designed to replace the Proton-M launch vehicles, which have been in use since the mid-1960s. The payload has been launched into orbit using an upgraded version of the Proton-M rocket since 2001.

Angara is a family of modular Russian rockets with various payload capacities. They are created on the basis of universal rocket modules with oxygen-kerosene engines and include launch vehicles ranging from light to heavy classes, with payloads ranging from 3.5 tons for the Angara-1.2 to 38 tons for the Angara-A5B in low Earth orbit.