The first test launch is scheduled for 2026
General designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT) Yuri Solomonov said that tests of the promising launch vehicle «Start-1M» light class will begin in 2026. Previously, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Denis Manturov, announced similar dates for the first tests of the rocket.
New Russian launch vehicle «Start-1M» will continue the line of conversion missiles, which are designed on the basis of intercontinental ballistic missiles «Topol». It will be able to carry satellites weighing up to 500 kg and launch them into low Earth orbit at an altitude of up to 1500 km.
New launch vehicle «Start-1M» is designed on the basis of the intercontinental ballistic missile «Topol-M». The first test launch is scheduled for 2026.
Yuri Solomonov
Also, the general designer of MIT noted that «Start-1M» will be able to launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome. According to him, the rocket must be tested first, and then there will be marketing proposals.