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Issue 144

04 Launch Analysis · Russia · Launch Systems

Russia Conducts Test Launch of Soyuz-5

30 April 2026: Russia launched the first Soyuz-5 launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. There was a mass-simulator on board, no active satellites. The launch was sub-orbital and the mass-simulator re-entered over the Pacific Ocean. According to Roscosmos, the first and second stages of the rocket performed as expected. Soyuz-5 is a two-stage, medium-lift launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene (RP-1).Launch Video . - Per Anatoly Zak russiaspaceweb.com : “The launch vehicle headed north before turning east...the first stage , propelled by the RD-171MV engine

Author Greg Gillinger Published May 4, 2026

30 April 2026: Russia launched the first Soyuz-5 launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. There was a mass-simulator on board, no active satellites. The launch was sub-orbital and the mass-simulator re-entered over the Pacific Ocean. According to Roscosmos, the first and second stages of the rocket performed as expected. Soyuz-5 is a two-stage, medium-lift launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene (RP-1).Launch Video.

– Per Anatoly Zak russiaspaceweb.com:

  • “The launch vehicle headed north before turning east…the first stage, propelled by the RD-171MV engine, operated for 2 minutes and 59 seconds, before separating at Launch+179.00 seconds and crashing in the Sverdlovsk Region of Russia. Five seconds later, the payload fairing, designed to protect the payload, split into two sections and separated as well at L+185.00 seconds.”
  • “The RD-0124MS engine of the second stage ignited shortly before the separation of the first stage and, initially, fired through a lattice structure connecting the two stages. Once separated, the second stage turned east in a so-called “dog-leg” maneuver to ensure its eventual splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.”
  • “The payload fairing separated L+3 minutes 5 seconds into the flight, during the operation of the second stage.”
  • “The second-stage engine began throttling down at L+560 seconds and was cut off around 570 seconds into the flight, after a roughly 6.5-minute burn and just short of orbital velocity. The booster then began a long descent and reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. As a result, the flight was expected to be suborbital with its mass simulator, known as GMM (from the Russian Gabaritno-Massovy Maket),” remaining attached to the second stage.
  • “After the second-stage engine cutoff, the simulation of the split between the dummy payload and the second stage was conducted at L+9 minutes and 32 seconds after liftoff (L+572.00 seconds), near the peak of the suborbital trajectory.”

– Per Mike Wall Space.com article:

  • “The Soyuz 5’s homegrown nature took on added importance for Russia in February 2022, when the nation invaded Ukraine, which has long been a powerhouse of rocket design and manufacturing. That invasion is ongoing, so Ukraine is also putting its rocketry expertise to use against Russia these days.”
  • “The (Soyuz 5) rocket is comparable in size and lifting power to SpaceX‘s workhorse Falcon 9; the Soyuz 5 can haul about 20 tons (18 metric tons) to low Earth orbit, compared to 25.1 tons (22.8 metric tons) for the SpaceX launcher. But the Falcon 9’s first stage is reusable, whereas the Soyuz 5 is a completely expendable vehicle.”

Soyuz-5 Heads to the Launch Pad
(nasaspaceflight.com)

Soyuz-5 at Integration Facility
(@RussianSpaceWeb via X)

Soyuz-5 Vertical at Baikonur (left) & Liftoff (Right)
(@RussianSpaceWeb via X)