On December 14, 2020 at 05:50 UTC the “Angara-A5” rocket-carrier was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk region, North Russia. Russian officials confirmed the “Angara-A5” rocket and its “Breeze-M” upper stage performed as intended during the test flight, which carried a mass simulator into orbit on a marathon nine-hour mission mimicking a mission profile that might be required by future Russian military and commercial payloads. The “Angara-A5” is the most powerful new Russian launcher since the 1980s, and is designed to replace the “Proton-M” rocket to carry the country’s heaviest payloads into orbit.