After two earlier this week failed to launch in the last seconds of the countdown, a Russian rocket launched on Thursday for a test flight.
A live broadcast demonstrated the launch of the flagship Angara A5, a formidable spacecraft built to carry large payloads into low Earth orbit, from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East.
“The rocket worked according to plan. The upper stage separated … and is currently putting the test payload into target orbit,” the Roscosmos space agency said in a social media post shortly after the launch.
Launch attempts on Tuesday and Wednesday were cancelled due to a failure in a pressurising system in an oxidiser tank and in the engine control system, according to Roscosmos.
A Roscosmos broadcast showed the craft had reached an altitude of 268 kilometres (167 miles) in the 13 minutes after take-off.
In recent years, Russia’s space program has experienced several well-publicized setbacks.
Russia once again abruptly postponed last month’s Soyuz spacecraft launch to the International Space Station (ISS).
On that occasion, three astronauts — from Russia, Belarus and the United States — were strapped in and ready for take-off when a “voltage dip” triggered an automatic shutdown seconds before blast-off.
The launch went ahead two days later.
And last year Russia’s first mission to the moon in almost 50 years failed when a lander crashed into the lunar surface.
There have also been delays in Russia’s development of the Angara A-5 heavy booster rocket, which is intended to carry tons of equipment into space.
In the last ten years, there have only been three test launches, one of which resulted in a partial failure.
Moscow intends to transport modules for an ISS competitor that it intends to build in the upcoming years using its cargo capabilities.
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