(press release taken from Khrunichev website)
System-level tests of the Angara Launch System continue at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia.
The engineering mock-up of the light-lift Angara launch vehicle was rolled out of the Integration-and-Test Facility (ITF) and installed at the Launch Complex on Monday, February 17, in full accordance with the schedule.
This mock-up designed to be used in tests of the Processing Facility and the Launch Complex is essentially a full-scale electrical/fueling prototype of the light-lift Angara launcher and is fit with the mating components of the heavy-lift booster.
The mock-up includes the Booster Stage 1 common rocket core module (URM 1), the Booster Stage 2 common rocket core module (URM 2), a payload simulator (in fact, a spacecraft mock-up) and the payload fairing. The following nominal subsystems are mounted on the mock-up: the fueling/ draining subsystems of URM 1 and URM 2, the emergency fire extinguishing subsystem, the telemetry subsystem, the LV aft power supply umbilical units, and the ground telemetry subsystem.
Prior to mock-up shipment to the launch base, the mechanisms, the tanks and the dry compartments of this test article underwent all applicable tests at Khrunichev, the mock-up manufacturer.
The efforts aimed at building ground infrastructure facilities to support Angara processing and/or launch operations fall within the framework of the Russian Federal Goal-oriented Program ‘Development of Russian Cosmodromes 2006 – 2015’ while the development and building of the integrated launch vehicle (ILV – the booster/upper stage/payload stack viewed as a single entity) are being carried out under the Governmental Armament Program and the Federal Space Program of Russia 2006 – 2015.
Angara represents the next-generation modularized launch vehicles that will be built around two common rocket core modules (URMs) using oxygen-kerosene engines URM 1 and URM 2, respectively.
The Prime Designer/Manufacturer of the Angara Launch System is the state-owned Khrunichev Research and Production Space Center whereas the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Federal Space Agency are the governmental customers.