The Angara rocket family (Russian: Ангара) is a family of launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The launch vehicles are to put between 3,800 kg (8,400 lb) and 24,500 kg (54,000 lb) into low Earth orbit and are intended, along with Soyuz-2 variants, to replace several existing launch vehicles.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, some formerly Soviet launch vehicles required components from companies now located in Ukraine, such as Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, which produced Zenit-2, and Yuzhmash, which produced Dnepr and Tsyklon.^[2] Additionally, the Soviet Union's main spaceport, Baikonur Cosmodrome, was located in Kazakhstan, and Russia encountered difficulties negotiating for its use.^[3] This led to the decision in 1992 to develop a new entirely Russian launch vehicle, named Angara, to replace the launch vehicles now built outside of the country, and ensure Russian access to space without Baikonur. It was decided that this vehicle should ideally use the partially completed Zenit-2 launch pad at the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome,^[4] and be able to launch military satellites into geosynchronous orbit, which Proton could not due to lack of a launch pad at Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Several companies submitted bids for the new launch vehicle, and in 1994 Khrunichev, the developer of Proton, was selected as the winner. The commercial success of Proton over the next two decades would be an advantage to Khrunichev, as the Angara project immediately ran into funding difficulties from the cash-strapped Russian government.^[5]

Khrunichev's initial design called for the use of a modified RD-170 for first stage propulsion and a liquid hydrogen powered second stage. By 1997, the hydrogen-powered second stage had been abandoned in favor of kerosene, and the RD-170 was replaced with a modular design which would be powered by the new RD-191, a one-chamber engine derived from the four-chamber RD-170. In late 1997, Khrunichev was given approval from the Russian government to proceed with their new design, which would both be able to replace the ICBM-based Dnepr, Tsyklon, and Rokot with its smaller variants, as well as be able to launch satellites into geostationary orbit from Plesetsk with the Proton-class Angara A5.^[6]

By 2004, the design of Angara had taken shape and the project proceeded with development of the launchers. In 2008, NPO Energomash, the builder of the RD-191, reported that the engine had completed development and burn tests and was ready for manufacturing and delivery,^[7] and in January 2009 the first completed Angara first stage was delivered to Khrunichev.^[8] The next year Vladimir Nesterov, Director-General of Khrunichev, announced that the first flight test of Angara would be scheduled for 2013,^[9] and in 2013 the first prototype Angara launch vehicle arrived in Plesetsk.^[10]

In 2014, 22 years after Angara's original conception, the first launch took place on 9 July 2014, an Angara 1.2PP suborbital test flight from the northern Plesetsk Cosmodrome.^[11][12][13] On 23 December 2014, Angara A5's first test flight was performed, launching it into geosynchronous orbit.^[14] In June 2020, it was reported that the first Angara Launching Pad was completed and would be transported to Vostochny Cosmodrome.^[15]

On 14 December 2020, 6 years after the first test flight, Angara-A5's second test flight took place from Plesetsk.^[16] According to Roscosmos chief Dmitriy Rogozin speaking about future plans after the launch in December 2020, two more Angara launches were coming in 2021: an Angara-1.2 and an Angara-A5 with a new booster, Persei.^[17] Only the launch of Angara-A5 with Persei upper stage ended up happening in 2021. The maiden flight of Angara 1.2 happened on 29 April 2022.

The production of the Universal Rocket Modules and the Briz-M upper stages will take place at the Khrunichev subsidiary Production Corporation Polyot in Omsk. In 2009, Polyot invested over 771.4 million RUB (about US$25 million) in Angara production lines.^[5] Design and testing of the RD-191 engine was done by NPO Energomash, while its mass production will take place at the company Proton-PM in Perm, Russia.^[5]

The South Korean launch vehicle Naro-1 used a first stage derived from Angara's URM-1 (fitted with a lower-thrust version of the RD-191 engine called RD-151). The vehicle made its first flight on 25 August 2009. The flight was not successful, but the first stage operated as expected. A second launch on 10 June 2010 ended in failure, when contact with the rocket was lost 136 seconds after launch. The Joint Failure Review Board failed to come to a consensus on the cause of the failure.^[63] The third flight on 30 January 2013 successfully reached orbit.

• Comparison of orbital launchers families
• Comparison of orbital launch systems