Roscosmos has launched the Soyuz-5 rocket for the first time for a suborbital test mission

In recent months, there were delays for the first test launch of the new Russian Soyuz-5 rocket. This solution, in Roscosmos's plans, is intended to replace the old, outdated, and expensive (albeit reliable) launch vehicles with more modern options that can provide greater flexibility and a higher launch cadence.

Finally, at 8:00 PM on April 30 (Italian time), the first test mission of the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle was launched from pad 45 at the Baikonur cosmodrome for a suborbital test with dummy payloads. According to Roscosmos, the mission was a complete success, validating the hardware and thereby preparing for future orbital launches (the Russian space agency confirmed that the second stage and payloads re-entered the designated area of the Pacific Ocean), although the actual operability of this solution may still be distant.

First Launch of the Soyuz-5 Rocket

Dmitry Bakanov (General Director of Roscosmos) stated that "today a special launch took place with the takeoff of Soyuz-5, a new Russian rocket equipped with the most powerful liquid-fuel engine in the world. The use of this rocket will significantly reduce the unit cost of the payload. This will have a positive impact on the economy of space launches."

As the high-ranking Russian official stated, this solution uses a single RD-171M engine for the first stage, a variant of a booster designed for the Energia rocket, also linked to the Buran project. This engine was also intended to be reusable up to ten times, but the collapse of the Soviet Union caused significant delays in its development and use.

The inaugural launch of the Soyuz-5 rocket was initially expected in mid-2022, but design delays and lack of funding led to several postponements. The project has also been named variously as "Energia-K," "Phoenix," and "Irtysh," while it is now referred to as "Sunkar," which means "falcon" in Russian.

The thrust of the RD-171M engine (which has four combustion chambers) is 740 tons while the launch mass of the vehicle is approximately 540 tons. The second stage employs two RD-0124MS engines (each with two combustion chambers) and can also use the technique of hot-staging for stage separation, contributing to improved overall thrust.

Reported performance indicates the capacity to carry 17 tons of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). The overall dimensions are 65 meters while the fairings are 5.2 meters in diameter. A version potentially supporting future crew transport capsules and payloads to the Russian space station ROS is also anticipated.

According to Alexey Anpilogov (of the Osnovanie Foundation), "in general, if you have a launch vehicle like Soyuz-5, you have the capacity to launch modules for orbital stations. This means that the project for an independent Russian orbital station is becoming a reality. In other words, Russia now has a trump card that will allow the country to fully achieve space sovereignty."