From Novosti:

NEW SOYUZ CARRIER ROCKET TO BE TESTED

MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Kovalev) - The essentially new third stage engine of the Soyuz 2-1B carrier rocket, will increase its carrying capacity by more than a metric ton, Valery Abrashkin, the deputy chief of the Samara branch (Volga region) of the Progress Central Specialized Design Bureau, said on Thursday in an interview with RIA Novosti.
>
> "Use of the essentially new engine for the rocket will make it
> possible to increase its carrying capacity by 1.2 metric tons in
> comparison with the Soyuz which is currently being used," he said.
> "This will be achieved because of the high specific thrust of the new
> engine which runs on non-polluting fuel components - kerosene and
> oxygen."
>
> The first assistant to the general designer of the design bureau,
> Alexander Chechin, said that a test launch of the Soyuz 2-1B with the
> new third stage engine had been scheduled for 2006.
>
> Mr. Abrashkin also told the interviewer that currently, the Voronezh
> Design Bureau of Chemical Automatics (the Central Federal District)
> was test igniting the new engine. "Our task is to make it work three
> times as long without malfunctioning, that is, for 900 seconds,
> instead of 300, to confirm its reliability," he said.
>
> Before the Soyuz 2-1B can be launched, the first version of the
> rocket, the Soyuz 2-1A, needs to achieve positive flying statistics.
> The first launch of this carrier, equipped with a digital control
> system and modern first and second stage engines, has been scheduled
> for October 15, 2004 at the Plisetsk space center (North Western
> Federal District).
>
> During the first test launch, the Soyuz 2-1A will put the Oblik, a
> Russian satellite, into orbit. "As a matter of fact, this satellite,
> which was built many years ago and was not launched due to financial
> difficulties, is only a mock-up of the payload, because its guaranteed
> service life has already expired," Mr. Abrashkin specified.
>
> However, according to him, the Oblik will contain all the necessary
> testing equipment. "This satellite has modern vibration and
> temperature sensors which will monitor how the modern first and second
> stage engines function," he noted.
>
> "During the first commercial launch of the new carrier in 2005, it
> will carry the French satellite Metop," said Mr. Abrashkin.
>
> New STK Soyuz carrier rockets will be launched from a complex at the
> Kourou space center in French Guiana that Russian specialists will
> build, he said.
>
> Since 1959, the Progress State Research and Industrial Rocket Space
> Center has designed and put into operation eight modifications of
> rocket carriers. These rockets have put 1,750 spacecraft into orbit.

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