Purpose
The main purpose of the Angara rocket family is to secure Russia's independent access to space. Angara will reduce Russia's dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in the independent republic of Kazakhstan, and will allow Russia to phase out foreign — mostly Ukrainian — rocket technology. Environmental issues have also played an important part in the development.
Rockets belonging to the family are intended to replace several existing launch vehicles. The light Angara 1.1 and 1.2 versions will replace the Kosmos-3M, Tsyklon and Rockot launchers; Angara 3 will replace the Ukrainian Zenit, and Angara 5 will replace the heavy-lift Proton. The Angara 5 version is expected to be most in demand, since this is the main version required by the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Khrunichev has also been developing a super-heavy-lift version (Angara 7), which is capable of orbiting payload of between 45 and 75 tons, and for which there is no equivalent in Russia's current rocket fleet. However, currently the development of Angara 7 is not receiving government funding. In addition, Khrunichev has offered to build a version capable of launching manned spacecraft: Angara 5P.
Read more about this topic: Angara (rocket Family)
Famous quotes containing the word purpose:
“Possibly the Creator did not make the world chiefly for the purpose of providing studies for gifted novelists; but if he had done so, we can scarcely imagine that He could have offered anything much better in the way of material ...”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)
“But this fully answered John’s purpose toward Betty, for as she did not understand, she highly admired him; and he concluded by again repeating that learning was a fine thing for a man but ‘twas both useless and blameworthy for a woman either to write or read.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“A material resurrection seems strange and even absurd except for purposes of punishment, and all punishment which is to revenge rather than correct must be morally wrong, and when the World is at an end, what moral or warning purpose can eternal tortures answer?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)