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Russia to launch Angara A5 space rocket for first time from Vostochny Cosmodrome the state space agency Roscosmos said
The 42.7-metre Angara launch vehicle, capable of carrying payloads bigger than 20 tonnes into orbit, is being developed to replace Russia's Proton M as Russia's heavy-lift rocket
The Cosmodrome sits in the forests of the Amur region of Russia's Far East, not far from the Russian border with China
Angara is named after a siberian river
The Angara is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai.
It drains out of Lake Baikal and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisey
The heavy-lift rocket will test launch from a newly built launchpad at the Cosmodrome — a symbol of Russia's space power aspirations that has cost billions of dollars and where construction was mired by repeated delays and corruption scandals
It will be the fourth launch for the Angara A5 rocket and it comes nearly 10 years after its first test flight.
All previous launches were based out of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia's north
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