December 24, 2014

The Angara A5 rocket lifting off (Photo courtesy Russian Ministry of Defence. All rights reserved)

Yesterday the Russian rocket Angara A5 successfully completed a test flight after being launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, about 800 km north of Moscow. The Briz-M upper stage separated regularly after about 12 minutes to perform the longest part of the mission, which was to bring a dummy mass to geostationary orbit. The series of maneuvers was successfully completed about nine hours after the launch.