Russia’s space program has suffered a series of high-profile setbacks in recent years
Moscow:
A Russian rocket made its third test flight on Thursday, after a launch attempt earlier this week was aborted in the final seconds of the countdown.
The live broadcast showed the flagship Angara A5, a powerful spacecraft designed to carry heavy payloads into low-Earth orbit, taking off from the Vostok Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East.
“The rocket is operating as planned. The upper stage separation… is currently delivering the test payload into the target orbit,” Roscosmos said in a social media post shortly after the launch.
Launch attempts on Tuesday and Wednesday were canceled due to malfunctions in the oxidizer tank pressurization system and engine control system, according to Roscosmos.
A Roscosmos broadcast showed the plane had reached an altitude of 268 kilometers (167 miles) within 13 minutes of takeoff.
Russia’s space program has suffered a series of high-profile setbacks in recent years.
Last month, Russia once again delayed the launch of a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) at the last minute.
At that time, three astronauts from Russia, Belarus and the United States fastened their seat belts and prepared to take off, but seconds before launch, a “voltage dip” triggered an automatic shutdown.
The launch continued two days later.
Last year, Russia’s first mission to the moon in nearly 50 years failed when the lander crashed into the lunar surface.
Development of Russia’s Angara A-5, a heavy-lift rocket designed to carry tons of equipment into space, has also been plagued by delays.
It has only conducted three test launches in the past 10 years, one of which was a partial failure.
Moscow plans to use its cargo capacity to deliver modules for a rival International Space Station it hopes to build in the coming years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
