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Angara-5 carries its first payloads More than three decades after it was first proposed, Russia's new-generation Angara-A5 rocket lifted off with operational geostationary satellites from Plesetsk on June 19, 2025, during its fifth launch.
The fifth Angara-5 flight at a glance:
Classified payload The fifth mission of the Angara-5 rocket marks a major breakthrough for the Russian military, as it delivers one of the first classified payloads likely developed after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, which triggered tighter controls on the supply of Western components to Russia and stalled or slowed down numerous defense projects by many years. The Kremlin's deepening ties with China, Russia's own efforts to develop indigenous equivalents of Western technologies, as well as illicit operations in the West to bypass export controls apparently made it possible to tackle, if not completely overcome some obstacles on the way of building modern spacecraft with radiation-hardened electronics and other components not requiring heavy pressurized containers. All the progress likely came at a high cost in time, money, performance and mass, but, it finally brought the first major payload requiring an Angara-5-class booster to the launch pad. Thanks to research done by Bart Hendrickx, there is a great degree of certainty that the fifth Angara-5 vehicle will launch a semi-classified 14F166A satellite developed at ISS Reshetnev under a December 2017 contract from the Ministry of Defense and intended for deployment in geostationary orbit as part of a military constellation. It is a part of the 14K248 complex, which also includes the Angara-5/Briz-M launch vehicle and the ground processing infrastructure in Plesetsk. Russian authorities disclosed the existence of the 14K248 system and its 11F166A spacecraft with the publication of the environmental impact statement at the end of 2023 for upcoming public hearings in Plesetsk. At the time, the first launch of the 14F166A satellite was scheduled before the end of 2023 and the second phase of flight testing for the (baseline) 14F166 spacecraft was expected in 2025.
Architecture of an Ekspress-2000-based satellite in deployed configuration. Copyright © 2010 Anatoly Zak According to the public documents, the 14F166 and 166A variants were based on ISS Reshetnev's Ekspress-2000 platform and differed from each other by a payload module. ISS Reshetnev described the Ekspress-2000 platform as the basis for Russia's largest communications satellites, both civilian, such as Ekspress-AM6, and military, for example, the Blagovest series. The environmental statement also showed that 14F166A would have 100 kilograms of hydrazine fuel, while 14F166 would carry 160 kilograms, indicating a higher overall mass. The satellites were also equipped with electric maneuvering thrusters. Even though Roskosmos or any of its entities never disclosed the mission of the 14F166 spacecraft, various public records mostly dealing with contractual obligations openly mentioned ongoing work on the project starting as early as the late 2010s. For example, the Moscow State University, MGU, published contract details for the research (known in Russian as NIR from Nauchno-Tekhnicheskaya Rabota) conducted between 2019 and 2021 into the electro-static effects of space plasma on the 14F166 article, "taking into account the design of the unpressurized instrument module, the electro-physical properties of (its) materials and its operational conditions." That particular work was conducted by the Laboratory for Space Material Science at MGU's Skobeltsin NIIYaF nuclear physics institute and the effort was characterized as associated with new-generation space telecommunications. Most importantly, in 2017, ISS Reshetnev received a contract for a part of the work on the 14F166 satellite from Moscow-based TsNIIKhM, which is known to specialize in the development of anti-satellite and inspector systems. The nature of the TsNIIKhM involvement in the 14F166 project was not publicly disclosed, but, if the previous history of the organization's activities in low orbit is any guide, the organization could use the 14F166 spacecraft as a deployment platform for one of its presumed "inspectors" or "satellite killers" but this time, in the geostationary orbit rather then in low orbit. If realized, it would likely be the first potential Russian ASAT vehicle roaming in geostationary orbit and a major elevation of a threat for Western space assets in this strategically critical region of space. According to open-source information unearthed by Hendrickx, TsNIIKhM worked on a small satellite that could perform proximity operations in geostationary orbit using astronavigation and machine vision. Preparations for flight
A photo surfaced in November 2023 showing stages of an Angara-5 rocket in Plesetsk. The booster stages of Angara-5 Vehicle No. 4L were likely shipped from Moscow to its launch site in Plesetsk on May 13, 2022. Around that time, its mission was not expected before late 2022 or early 2023. However, in the course of 2022 and 2023, the launch slipped to 2024 and then to 2025, most likely due to problems with completing the payload. During 2024, official videos shot during visits of high-ranking officials to Plesetsk in April and October showed booster stages of an Angara-5 rocket and a Briz-M upper stage at the processing complex, but no sign of a payload or the final integration of the vehicle. There were unofficial reports in the Fall of 2024 about the upcoming launch of the Angara-5/Briz-M vehicle with the 14F166A military payload as early as November or December 2024, as well as rumors about the delay of that mission until mid-2025. At the same time, another Angara-5 flight with a military payload was expected to be delayed from 2025 to 2026. On June 9, 2025, the administration of the Kolpashevo District in the Tomsk Region of Russia declared several communities at risk of debris impact during an Angara-5 launch scheduled around 06:00 Moscow Time on June 19, 2025. The danger area covered the Verkneketsky, Kolpashevsky, Kargasoksky and Parabelsky Districts and was located around 65 kilometers north-west of Lake Tresh. This particular area, located around 2,320 kilometers downrange from Plesetsk, would normally be used as a drop zone for the second stage of an Angara rocket heading to an orbit with an inclination 63.4 degrees toward the Equator. The rocket's first stage boosters were expected to fall in the Komi Republic around 850 kilometers downrange, while the third stage would splash down in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines, where the Russian authorities also declared a danger zone. On June 16, 2025, authorities in the Komi Republic issued warning for drop zones in the Vuktylsky, Sosnogorski and Troitsko-Pechorsky area usually associated with the impact of first-stage boosters. The danger period was scheduled from 05:30 to 07:00 Moscow Time on June 19, with possible backup opportunities extending until June 29, 2025. Mission plan for the fifth Angara-5 flight
According to the environmental statement for the 14F166 project, the Angara rocket was to head southeast to align its ascent trajectory with an orbit inclined 63.15 degrees toward the Equator, following its launch from Site 35 in Plesetsk. The first three stage of the vehicle was expected to accelerate the Briz-M upper stage and its payload to near-orbital velocity before separating and falling into pre-determined drop zones. The Briz-M space tug was progammed to perform its first engine firing to enter a 180.9 by 196.9-kilometer parking orbit with an inclination 63.396 degrees toward the Equator. The stack was to passively follow the initial orbit for around 10 minutes, before Briz-M had to initiate a series of firings to ultimately reach a target orbit, known as "super-synchronous" because its apogee is considerably higher than the 36,000-kilometer geostationary altitude. It is usually employed in flight scenarios requiring maximum payload mass to be achieved at the cost of some mission complexity and the resulting risk. The environmental impact statement listed the 18,858 by 52,728-kilometer target orbit and the inclination of 1.3 degrees toward the Equator, but the actual parameters could be adjusted in the course of finalizing the mission planning. After the separation from the Briz-M in the super-synchronous orbit, the 11K166 satellite was expected to use its own SPD-100V low-thrust but highly efficient electric engines to boost the perigee and lower the apogee in order to reach an operational geostationary orbit. According to the official Russian media, quoting the Ministry of Defense, the launch of the Angara-A5 rocket carrying multiple satellites had been successfully conducted by the Space Forces on June 19, 2025. The payload was reported separating from the upper stage around 22:00 Moscow Time (3 p.m. EDT) on June 19.
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