Russia's first light-class modification Angara 1.2PP carrier rocket is ready for its maiden launch, its manufacturer Khrunichev Center said on Wednesday.

The first Angara will be sent to the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia later this month, the manufacturer said in a statement, but did not give a precise launch date.

Meanwhile, the first heavy-class Angara-A5 has been completed and will soon be presented to the public, a Khrunichev spokesman said.

The project is being personally overseen by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of the defense industry, the Khrunichev spokesman told RIA Novosti. Shoigu has previously expressed concern over delays to the project, saying his ministry would closely monitor its development.

Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said earlier in May that the light-class Angara would be launched in mid-2014 and its heavy variant toward the end of the same year. The light-class Angara was initially due to be launched in 2013.

Deputy Defense Minister Col. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said in late April that the new rocket would only be launched after the construction of a new launch facility at the Plesetsk space center is completed.

The Angara family of rockets, designed to provide lifting capabilities of between 2,000 and 40,500 kilograms into low earth orbit, has been in development since 1995. The rocket has a liquid-oxygen and kerosene powered first stage and hydrogen-oxygen fuelled second stage.

The rockets have a modular design similar to the US-made Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), based on a common Universal Rocket Module (URM).

Angara rockets will reduce Russia's dependence on the Baikonur space center which it leases from Kazakhstan, by allowing the launch of heavy payloads from Plesetsk and from the new Vostochny space center in Russia's Far East.

Source: RIA Novosti