Russia today conducted a test launch of its Angara-A5 rocket for the first time from the Vastochniy cosmodrome, after technical problems forced officials to cancel the launch at the last minute for two days in a row.

The test launch of Angara, a new post-Soviet launch vehicle, aims to showcase Russia’s space ambitions in the post-Soviet era and the growing role of Vastochny, located in the forested Amur region of the Russian Far East.

“There is an engine start, the flight is normal,” Russian space agency Roscosmos said in its live translation. “All systems go.”

After a few minutes, the rocket was traveling at a speed of more than 25,000 kilometers per hour and entered orbit.

Roscosmos reported that Angara-A5 was launched with a test payload and is operating normally. Its upper section detached and placed the test payload into orbit.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the test launch of the space rocket was canceled due to a malfunction in the engine launch control system.

Russia launched the Angara project a few years after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 as a Russian-built launch vehicle that would ensure access to space even without the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan.

The first test flight of the Angara-A5 took place in 2014, followed by another in 2020, both from Plesetsk.

“With this launch, flight design tests of the Amur space rocket complex with Angara launch vehicles at Vatsochny began,” Roscosmos said.

He said the Angara-A5 is much more environmentally friendly than Russia’s Proton M as a heavy-lift missile that has been in service since the mid-1960s.