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Smartphone enthusiasts can pick up fresh gear nearly every year — rocket aficionados usually face a longer wait.
For watchers of Russia-made launch vehicles, the clock’s now ticking down until December, when Moscow-headquartered state space agency Roscosmos still intends to carry out its first test launch of the Soyuz-5 rocket.
“Yes, we have plans for December, everything remains in force,” the Roscosmos Head Dmitry Bakanov said Aug. 22, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
The rocket, which is expected to become fully operational in 2028, is unlikely to shock by way of novelty. A decade in the making under the development name “Feniks” and popularly known as Irtysh, the Soyuz-5 is widely viewed as a medium-class launch vehicle that reincarnates the Ukraine-manufactured Zenit-2 rocket.
