Fwd: Soyuz-2 Launch Delayed Until Next Year

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 25, 2013 4:32:36 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Soyuz-2 Launch Delayed Until Next Year

 

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Russia to launch new Soyuz-2 in 2014

December 25, 18:20 UTC+4
Initially, the rocket was supposed to be launched on December 23

 

AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky

MOSCOW, December 25, 17:34 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has postponed the launch its new Soyuz 2-1.v carrier rocket next year, Aerospace Defence Troops spokesperson, Colonel Dmitry Zenin told ITAR-TASS.

The rocket was scheduled to launch December 25 and carry an Aist satellite.

Initially, the rocket was supposed to be launched on December 23, but pre-launch checks revealed the need for additional preparation of the ground systems.

The Soyuz-2.1v carrier rocket is a two-stage light vehicle. With a Volga booster it is intended for taking satellites to circular orbits of up to 1,500 km and heliosynchronous orbits of up to 850 km. The rocket, designed and made by Samara-based CSKB Progress, is to replace Tsiklon and Kosmos carriers and duplicate Rokot and eventually Angara 1.1 and Angara 1.2 rockets.

 

 

© Copyright 2013 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. 

 

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New Soyuz Rocket Test Delayed Until Next Year

Soyuz-2.1v

© Photo State Research and Production Space Rocket Center "TsSKB-Progress "

20:03 25/12/2013

MOSCOW, December 25 (RIA Novosti) – A test launch of a new Soyuz rocket scheduled for Wednesday evening will instead take place sometime next year, a Russian defense official said.

"The launch has been postponed until next year," Colonel Dmitry Zenin said, without specifying a date.

The new rocket, dubbed the Soyuz-2.1v, is to feature a completely reworked first stage powered by a NK-33 (14D15) rocket engine built by the NK Engines Company in the Russian city of Samara. The rocket lacks the characteristic four boosters that Soyuz and its ancestors have had since the R-7 missile that launched Sputnik in 1957.

The launch was originally scheduled for Monday and was delayed twice – first until Tuesday and then until Wednesday – due to concern over a possible malfunction of one of the rocket's engines, a source in the space industry told RIA Novosti. A government commission reviewed the rocket's status and gave the go-ahead for the launch earlier on Wednesday.

The Soyuz is one of only two rockets worldwide that are capable of sending astronauts into orbit, the other being the Chinese Long March 2F. All astronauts on the International Space Station arrived aboard Soyuz spacecraft.

The Soyuz, the most frequently launched rocket in the world, has undergone more than 1,700 launches since its debut in 1966. It is currently launched from three space centers: Baikonur in Kazakhstan, Plesetsk in northwest Russia, and the European Kourou center in French Guiana.

Early Wednesday morning, a smaller Rokot rocket, based on the SS-18 ballistic missile, launched three military Kosmos satellites into orbit from Plesetsk.

© 2013 RIA Novosti

 

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