Russian military lays hope on new Angara carrier rockets

The family of Angara rockets will complement, and eventually replace, the existing line of Rockot and Proton launch vehicles. It will be available in a range of configurations capable of lifting between from 2 to 24.5 metric tons into low-earth orbit, and its creators say it will have a low environment impact.

"In the future, light and heavy class Angara carrier rockets will form the core of the Russian fleet of delivery vehicles together with the medium class Soyuz-2 rockets. They will be used extensively to launch military satellites into orbit," Maj. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said.

The Angara is intended mainly for launch from the Plesetsk space center to reduce Moscow's dependence on Kazakhstan's Baikonur, the main launch facility for the current generation of Russian rockets, Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.