Site 35 at the

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome () is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, near the town of Plesetsk, from which it takes its name. Until 2025 and the commissioning of the Andøya Space, Andøya base in Norway, it was the only operati ...

is a launch complex used by the

Angara The Angara (; ) or Angar ( мүрэн) is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It drains out of Lake Baikal and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisey. It is long, and has ...

rocket. The complex has a single

launch pad A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform (mobile launcher platform), or the entire c ...

, Site 35/1, which was first used for the

maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. In the early days of aviation it could be dange ...

of the Angara in July 2014.

Zenit

Site 35 was originally intended to support the Zenit rocket, which the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

saw as a replacement for the R-7 series. The construction of a Zenit launch complex at Plesetsk was authorised in 1976; however, development did not begin until the completion of Site 45 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

, which was also constructed for Zenit. Construction at Site 35 began in the mid-1980s, but the programme was abandoned following the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

. Following the cancellation of Zenit launches from Plesetsk, Russia had originally planned to use parts constructed for Site 35 to repair one of the Zenit pads at Baikonur that had been heavily damaged when a rocket lost thrust and fell back into the flame trench seconds after launch. Instead, the parts were eventually used on

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial l ...

's ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

'' launch platform.

Angara

When Russia began development of the Angara rocket, launch pads at both Plesetsk and Baikonur were planned. Several existing sites at Plesetsk were considered, including Site 41/1, Site 16/2, and Site 32; Site 35/1 was determined to be the most suitable. Construction began in 2004 but was not completed until April 2014. The Angara made its maiden flight—in the one-off Angara-1.2pp configuration—from Site 35/1 on 9 July 2014, flying a successful suborbital test mission. The first orbital launch from the site was the inaugural launch of the Angara A5 on 23 December 2014, which carried a mass simulator. A second orbital test flight of the Angara A5 took place almost six years later, on 14 December 2020.

References

{{Plesetsk Cosmodrome launch sites Plesetsk Cosmodrome