"At its August 19 session the state commission for flight tests confirmed the possibility of carrying out the first launch of the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket (Stage 1A) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on October 29, 2004," Vyacheslav Davidenko, an official spokesman of Roskosmos, told RIA Novosti.
He said that the main task of conducting the first flight test of the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket (Stage 1A) is to carry out a comprehensive checking of the functioning of carrier rocket components.
"Above all, these are systems controlling the carrier, both during preparations for launch and in the course of the flight, and assessing data on mechanical loads acting on the rocket and its payload," Davidenko noted.
As payload the Soyuz-2 will use a cargo mock-up. It will be put into an open-ended orbit and will along a ballistic trajectory splash down into the Pacific Ocean," added Davidenko. According to him, the third stage of the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket (Stage 1B) will use a new engine with more improved characteristics.
The Soyuz-2 is being developed by the Samara space rocket centre TsSKB-Progress with a view to increasing its cargo carrying capacity, ensuring more precise orbiting of payloads in a wider range of orbits than is currently allowed by Soyuz, Molniya, and Soyuz-FG carrier rockets, and also increasing space for payload thanks to the use of larger-sized payload fairing.
The carrier rocket, depending on its purpose, will be used both with and without the Fregat boost section developed by the Lavochkin research and production association, Davidenko said.
