Next launch of Soyuz-5 launch vehicle set for 2nd half of 2027 - Roscosmos

MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - The second test launch of the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle will take place in the second half of 2027, and the third in 2028, Roscosmos Deputy Director General for Rocket Projects Dmitry Baranov said.

"We have three flight tests planned. We successfully completed the first one on April 30. The second one is now scheduled for the second half of 2027. And our third rocket is currently scheduled for 2028," Baranov said in an interview with the Vesti news service.

Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Bakanov said on May 18 that the state corporation was preparing two more Soyuz-5 launch vehicles, after which their production would be transferred to series production.

The maiden Soyuz-5 launch was performed from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 30. Roscosmos said that the first and second stages performed as planned, and "a full-size mockup was launched into the target suborbital trajectory, and subsequently dropped into Pacific waters that were closed to ships and aircraft in advance."

After the launch, Bakanov said that the use of the new Soyuz-5 rocket would drastically cut the cost of launching payloads into orbit.

Soyuz-5 will be the first new launch vehicle developed in Russia since 2014, Bakanov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 11.

Energia Corporation is the lead designer of the medium-lift Soyuz-5. The rocket was developed as part of the Fenix R&D project. It is powered by the world's most powerful liquid-fuel rocket engine RD-171MV. The two-stage rocket will take off from the former Zenit launch site in Baikonur within a joint project with Kazakhstan. Soyuz-5 can bring up to 17 tonnes of payload to a reference orbit.