Russia launches Angara space rocket

Russia has successfully test-launched its newest Angara light-weight rocket, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The rocket blasted off at 1600 Moscow time (1200 GMT) from the launching field of Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia's northern Arkhangelsk region.

The Angara-1.2PP delivered a dummy satellite to the designated landing site at the Kura range in the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, 5,700 km away from the launch pad, the ministry's press service said.

The first-stage separation took place four minutes after the liftoff. The engine of second-stage rocket cut off shortly afterwards. The dummy satellite fell down to the planned site 21 minutes after the launch, which announced the success of the test.

This has been the third attempt to launch the Angara since the first try was rearranged due to "organizational reasons" and the second postponed because of technical glitch on June 27.

Angara-1.2PP is the light version of the space-launch vehicle family, which is developed by the Khrunichev space rocket corporation. The system can launch rockets of various classes, with workload varying from 1.5 to 35 tons.

Investment in the Angara project has exceeded 3 billion U.S. dollars over the last 20 years, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

The test-launch of a heavy rocket of the Angara family has been planned for late December, and the first manned flight is scheduled for 2018.

Angara's home cosmodrome is the newly-built Vostochny in Far Eastern Amur region.