Recent Activity
Angara A5 launches continued through 2024-2025 deploying military payloads (Cosmos series); Western commercial customers absent since 2022 sanctions.
Investor Brief
Sole sovereign Russian orbital site for polar and Molniya regimes (Baikonur is leased from Kazakhstan, Vostochny is far-east). Strategic importance amplified post-2022 as international cooperation (Rockot for ESA, etc.) ended.
Ownership
Parent Entity
Regulatory Regime
Latitude Advantage
Launch Azimuth Range
Employees
Country
🇷🇺Russia
Region
Europe
Established
1,957
Launches / Year
510
Years Active
69
Strategic Position
62.9271° N, 40.5778° E
Azimuth: 0 deg-150 deg (polar to Molniya/highly-elliptical regimes)
62.9 deg N — high-latitude site optimized for polar, SSO, and Molniya orbits; the only sovereign-Russian (non-leased) launch site for high-inclination missions
Future Milestones
- 2026
Continued Angara A5 / Persei upper-stage qualification flights
- 2027
Angara A5M (uprated variant) maiden flight scheduled
About
Plesetsk Cosmodrome is Russia's primary military launch facility and one of the most active spaceports historically by number of launches. Located in northern Russia, it is optimized for high-inclination and polar orbit missions. It serves as the test site for new Russian launch vehicles including the Angara family, and remains the sole operational launch site for sovereign Russian crewed-orbit capability outside leased Baikonur.
Key Features
Russia's primary military and government launch facility
High-latitude location (63 deg N) optimal for polar orbits
Test site for Angara family of next-generation Russian rockets
Historically the most active launch site by total number of launches
Supports both orbital launches and ICBM testing
Rockets That Launch Here
Companies Operating Here
Orbit Types
Notable Launches
First Angara A5 heavy-lift rocket test (December 2014)
Hundreds of Cosmos military satellite deployments
Soyuz-2 military and government missions
Rockot launches for ESA's GOCE and Sentinel satellites (pre-2022 sanctions)
Regular GLONASS navigation satellite deployments
Upcoming Launches From This Site
Next missions scheduled to fly from Plesetsk Cosmodrome
- Provider
- Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)
- Rocket
- Soyuz 2.1b
- NET
- Pad
- Unknown Pad
- Provider
- Russian Space Forces
- Rocket
- Soyuz 2.1b Fregat
- NET
- Pad
- Unknown Pad
Recent Launches From This Site
Most recent missions flown from Plesetsk Cosmodrome
- Soyuz 2.1b | Lotos-S1Russian Space ForcesSuccess
- Soyuz 2.1b | Pion-NKS No. 1 (Kosmos 2550)Russian Space ForcesSuccess
- Soyuz 2.1v | Razbeg 1 (Kosmos 2551)Russian Space ForcesSuccess
- Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M | Neitron (Kosmos 2553)Russian Space ForcesSuccess
- Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M | Meridian-M No.20LRussian Space ForcesSuccess
- Soyuz 2.1b | Kosmos 2554 (Lotos-S1 #6)Russian Space ForcesSuccess