Angara-A5/Orion - GMM KA, Gagarinets, smallsat mass model - Vostochny - 11 April 2024 (09:00:00.164

[Rondaz]

First Angara launch from Vostochny


And here are the construction elements of the first Angara A5 to launch from Vostochny cosmodrome. The final assembly is scheduled for the mid Summer.

https://twitter.com/katlinegrey/status/1541399946469023751

And here are the construction elements of the first Angara A5 to launch from Vostochny cosmodrome. The final assembly is scheduled for the mid Summer.

[Alter Sachse]

The first Angara-A5 flight rocket for Vostochny undergoes control tests

The Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) has started final tests of the first Angara-A5 heavy-lift launch vehicle as part of the creation of the Amur space rocket complex at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

Electrical tests of the rocket are taking place at the control and test station in the Omsk branch of the enterprise - the Polet Production Association, which is the main site for the production of Angara family rockets.

Based on the test results, the readiness to send the rocket to the Vostochny Cosmodrome for preparation for launch will be confirmed.

Earlier, the third stage of the Angara-A5 first flight rocket was delivered from the Moscow site of the Khrunichev Center to Polet for general assembly and control checks.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/katlinegrey/status/1738534110128144672

The first flight model of #AngaraA5 to be launched from Vostochny was sent to the cosmodrome. Preliminary, the launch is scheduled for March 2024.

[Alter Sachse]

Roscosmos:
The Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) sent the Angara-A5 launch vehicle for the first launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome from its subsidiary, the Omsk-based Polet Production Association. This launch will open a new page in the history of the Russian rocket and space industry.

The specialists of Polet with the participation of the Khrunichev Center's structural subdivisions have completed testing of the Angara-A5 launch vehicle. Based on the results of tests, analysis and verification of all launch vehicle systems for compliance with the integrated engineering solutions, Angara-A5 readiness for the start of flight development tests at the Vostochny Cosmodrome was confirmed.

At Vostochny the creation and testing of the infrastructure of the technical complex for preparation of Angara launch vehicles was completed. Roscosmos specialists have completed and confirmed, including by means of the electric refueling mockup of the Angara-A5 launch vehicle - Angara-NZh, the readiness and operability of the launch complex systems. Thus, the space infrastructure for Angara launch vehicles at Vostochny is ready to start preparing the first flight rocket for launch.
Khrunichev Center is the lead developer and manufacturer of the Angara space rocket complexes at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and Amur at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, which use the latest Russian Angara launch vehicles. The enterprise is entrusted with the task of national scale - commissioning of new launch vehicles of different payloads.

It is planned to use three-stage Angara-A5 and Angara-A5M heavy-lift launch vehicles as part of the Amur space rocket complex of the first stage at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

[Alter Sachse]

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[Alter Sachse]

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[russianhalo117]

2024
March 21 (081:xx:xx:xx.xxx) - Dummy Payload - Angara-A5/DM-03: Orion (72401/1Л) - Vostochniy, 1A

Per subscription paywalled information: https://russianspaceweb.com/protected/angara5-vostochny-flight1.html

Citing delays with PTK-Orel flight test readiness and no other
functional replacement payload made availableby the Russian government a dummy payload has been selected to allow testing of the interim Angara-A5 (Angara-A5P) version  for Vostochniy, the 724 series. To replace the originally planned payload and flight configuration, the test flight will instead be the maiden launch of the Blok-DM-03 Vostochniy version called Orion (14C49 (14S49)). The payload fairing to be flown on the test flight is a 14C747 (14S747) series fairing. Note that the DM-03 for this mission is a custom hybrid series to test the fixes from the previous DM-03: Persei failure, debut DM-03: Orion, to use up stored and soon to expire Sea-Launch DM-SL/DM-SLB stages and test next generation DM-SLU hardware for the Soyuz-5/6/7 programme.

[Alter Sachse]

Roscosmos:
At the unified technical complex of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, specialists of the Vostochny Space Center of the Ground Space Infrastructure Facilities Operation Center and the Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) started preparing the Angara-A5 launch vehicle for the first launch.

Today, specialists are conducting a full check of completeness and operability of technological systems and technical complex before assembly and testing, as well as the sequence of technological operations and dockability of the launch vehicle components.

Tomorrow the autonomous checks of the launch vehicle units will begin.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[catdlr]

Roscosmos:
At the unified technical complex of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, specialists of the Vostochny Space Center of the Ground Space Infrastructure Facilities Operation Center and the Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center (part of Roscosmos State Corporation) started preparing the Angara-A5 launch vehicle for the first launch.

Today, specialists are conducting a full check of completeness and operability of technological systems and technical complex before assembly and testing, as well as the sequence of technological operations and dockability of the launch vehicle components.

Tomorrow the autonomous checks of the launch vehicle units will begin.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Nice to see the two Soyuz's in the background to compare with.

[Salo]

https://tass.ru/kosmos/19792305
Google translate:

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. The first launch of the Angara launch vehicle from the Vostochny cosmodrome is possible in the first ten days of April, said Roscosmos General Director Yuri Borisov.

“We are ready, probably, to launch the Angara in the first ten days of April. The rocket is already at Vostochny with the upper stage,” Borisov said at the plenary session of the XLVIII Academic Readings on Cosmonautics in memory of S.P. Korolev (“Royal Readings”).

[Salo]

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/attachments/5345657907-jpg.6903168/

[Jrcraft]

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/attachments/5345657907-jpg.6903168/

Interesting looking dummy payload.

[Targeteer]

https://twitter.com/katlinegrey/status/1770368596193014134/photo/4

[B. Hendrickx]

It looks like several cubesats will be riding piggyback with the dummy payload. As can be seen in these pictures, it is surrounded by several "black boxes", at least some of which look like cubesat containers.

[zubenelgenubi]

Scheduled launch time line
NET March 2024:

https://kosmodrom.space/raspisanie-zapuskov

Progress MS-25  -  December 1 at 12:26 UTC (17:26 LT - see tour program);
Ionosfera #1,2   -  December 4 at 21:15 UTC (December 5 at 06:15 LT - see tour program);
Arktika-M #2       -  December 16;
Soyuz MS-25      -  March 13;
Angara A5 from Vostochniy - NET March;
Progress MS-26 - May (probably mistake - MS-27)

March 21:

https://vostochny-kosmodrom-tour.ru/
Google translate:

Upcoming launch dates:

February 22 Soyuz 2.1b with the Meteor space satellite

(acceptance of documents is open until January 7)

March 21, launch of the Angara heavy-class rocket from the new launch pad

May 2024 (exact date to be confirmed) Soyuz 2.1b with Ionosphere spacecraft

*Launch dates are subject to change

[zubenelgenubi]

Will the dummy payload receive a name or designation?  Will it be separated into orbit or remain attached to the upper stage?

[Steven Pietrobon]

https://kosmodrom.space/raspisanie-zapuskov

Angara A5
The first test launch of a new heavy rocket at Vostochny
Launch window: April 6-10

[B. Hendrickx]

Will the dummy payload receive a name or designation?  Will it be separated into orbit or remain attached to the upper stage?

In the thread on the NK forum it's being called GMM KA, which stands for "satellite mass simulator", but I don't think this is official.

As far as I'm aware, Roscosmos has not released any information on the launch profile. Presumably, the plan is for the rocket to fly a due east trajectory from Vostochny over the Pacific and insert the Orion upper stage into a 51.7° parking orbit, after which the upper stage will fly to GEO. The due east trajectory has been flown only once from Vostochny, namely by Luna Glob last year. 

Most likely, the mass simulator will remain attached to the upper stage, as it did after the three Angara-A5 test launches from Plesetsk (and in that case it will not get an official designation). However, we will probably see the deployment of cubesats from one or more of the black containers mounted under the dummy payload. In the picture that I posted here earlier, the container in the 5 o'clock position looks very much like the cubesat deployer of the Kosmolab company (see attachment 1). This can be flown in four configurations depending on the size and the number of the cubesats carried (see attachment 2).

To the best of my knowledge, no cubesats have been officially announced for this mission. If they are indeed on board, the question is if they will be deployed in the low parking orbit or the final orbit. If they are deployed in GEO, I think they would become the first geostationary cubesats (in which case they would have had to be hardened to withstand the more challenging radiation environment).

[Jrcraft]

Will the dummy payload receive a name or designation?  Will it be separated into orbit or remain attached to the upper stage?

In the thread on the NK forum it's being called GMM KA, which stands for "satellite mass simulator", but I don't think this is official.

As far as I'm aware, Roscosmos has not released any information on the launch profile. Presumably, the plan is for the rocket to fly a due east trajectory from Vostochny over the Pacific and insert the Orion upper stage into a 51.7° parking orbit, after which the upper stage will fly to GEO. The due east trajectory has been flown only once from Vostochny, namely by Luna Glob last year. 

Most likely, the mass simulator will remain attached to the upper stage, as it did after the three Angara-A5 test launches from Plesetsk (and in that case it will not get an official designation). However, we will probably see the deployment of cubesats from one or more of the black containers mounted under the dummy payload. In the picture that I posted here earlier, the container in the 5 o'clock position looks very much like the cubesat deployer of the Kosmolab company (see attachment 1). This can be flown in four configurations depending on the size and the number of the cubesats carried (see attachment 2).

To the best of my knowledge, no cubesats have been officially announced for this mission. If they are indeed on board, the question is if they will be deployed in the low parking orbit or the final orbit. If they are deployed in GEO, I think they would become the first geostationary cubesats (in which case they would have had to be hardened to withstand the more challenging radiation environment).

I really don't think those are cubesat dispensers. I think they house electronics for the Block DM. We've seen this on other photos of the BLock-D.

[B. Hendrickx]

I really don't think those are cubesat dispensers. I think they house electronics for the Block DM. We've seen this on other photos of the BLock-D.

Excellent find. I went to look back at pictures of the dummy payload flown on the latest Angara-A5 launch from Plesetsk in December 2021. This used the Persei upper stage, which essentially is the same iteration of the Blok-DM as Orion. Indeed, the same "black boxes" can also be seen here (see the attachment). There appear to be more of them on Persei/Orion than on a standard Blok-DM, presumably because these are the first flights of the modified upper stages and they need to be more heavily instrumented. At least one of the features seen in the picture that I posted here earlier is said to be an antenna needed to communicate with the ground via the Luch-5 data relay satellites.

I should add that a usually reliable source on the Russian SkyscraperCity spaceflight forum does claim that the upcoming Angara-A5 will carry one or more "live" cubesats. The "suspect" black container appears to be the one in the 5 o'clock position that I mentioned earlier. So we still shouldn't entirely rule out the possibility that they are on board.