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Angara-1 flies its fifth mission For the second time in 2025, the light version of the Angara rocket flew from Plesetsk on August 21, performing a classified military mission. It was the fifth launch of the Angara-1.2 variant and 11th mission for the Angara family.
The fifth Angara-1.2 mission at a glance:
Starting on Aug. 12, 2025, Russian authorities began issuing sea- and air-traffic warnings in the Barents Sea, just North of the Kola Peninsula, whose coordinates were close to the areas appropriate for the impact of the first stage of the Angara-1.2 rocket and its payload fairing, when heading to a near-polar orbit with an inclination 96.7 degrees from Plesetsk. Another warning for the Northern Pacific restricted the areas close to the impact distance for the Angara's second stage and its upper (third) stage (INSIDER CONTENT). According to the advisories, the launch was scheduled around noon between Aug. 21 and Aug. 28, 2025. On Aug. 21, 2025, official Russian media, quoting the Ministry of Defense, announced that the Angara-1.2 launch vehicle lifted off from Site 35 in Plesetsk with multiple military spacecraft at 12:32 Moscow Time (5:32 a.m. EDT) and successfully delivered them to Earth's orbit. This launch likely formally completed flight testing of the Angara-1.2 variant. The Ministry of Defense then confirmed the successful launch of multiple spacecraft and that communications had been established with the newly launched satellites which were reported functioning as planned. According to unofficial sources, the Angara delivered a quartet of OO MKA satellites, released in pairs from the AM upper stage before its pre-programmed deorbiting maneuver over the Pacific Ocean. However, one of four objects associated with the Aug. 21, 2025, launch, was catalogued by the US Space Force in a highly elliptical orbit, unlike the three other objects, which were tracked in more typical orbits for previous OO MKA satellites:
As noted by Bart Hendrickx, a similar flight scenario played out during the first Angara-1 launch in April 2022, which delivered Kosmos-2555, and also during its second flight in October 2022, which carried Kosmos-2560. In both cases, the AM upper stage maneuvered to an elliptical orbit, after releasing its payload into a circular orbit and before performing a deorbiting maneuver. In those missions, no objects were seen separating from the AM space tug in the elliptical orbit, so they probably served as rehearsals for what transpired during the fifth Angara-1.2 launch.
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