Roscosmos confirmed the plans for the launch of the new Soyuz-5 missile-Kommersant
The first launch of the new promising two-stage medium-sized carrier of the Soyuz-5 medium class will be held in December of this year with the joint Russian-Kazakh space missile system Baiterek. This was announced on May 2 by the General Director of Roscosmos Dmitry Bakanov during commemorative events on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
According to the head of the Russian National Space Agency, the construction of the complex is carried out on schedule in order to have time to complete installation work, prepare the infrastructure and starting table for the first test launch. It is planned that the rocket itself will be delivered to Baikonur by October, where its pre -flight training will be carried out.
The Baiterek project, implemented by Russia and Kazakhstan on the basis of a 2004 bilateral agreement, provided for the creation of an environmentally friendly average missile for the withdrawal of automatic spacecraft to near -ground orbits and infrastructure for its launch. At the same time, Astana was responsible for updating the starting platform (specialists selected the site No. 45, which was previously used to launch the Zenit Soviet missiles), and Roscosmos was responsible for the development and production of the carrier. Initially, it was supposed to become the “Angara” with the first test launch in 2012, but due to financing problems (the sale price by that time increased seven times, from $ 223 million to $ 1.64 billion), the agreement participants agreed to adapt the complex to the new Ukrainian two- and three-stage Zenit-2SLB missiles.
However, after the deterioration of relations between Russia and Ukraine and the “complications of the geopolitical situation in the world, which led to the rupture of the supplies of components and an increase in the duration of work” in 2017, it was decided to return to the Russian missile line. The sketch project for Soyuz-5 was ready by December 2021.
The full -fledged operation of Baiterek, according to updated plans, should begin in 2028. It is designed for six to eight launches annually.
