Russia will use a new upper stage developed for the Angara-A5 heavy carrier rocket also for the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle to deliver payloads into orbit, a source in the domestic space industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"The upper stage for the Angara will also be used for the Soyuz-5," the source said.

Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation is developing the new upper stage on the basis of DM boosters for the Angara-A5 launch vehicle. In 2017, the DM-SL and DM-SLB upper stages developed under the Sea Launch and Land Launch programs were considered as options for their operation together with the Soyuz-5 rocket.

As Energia CEO Nikolai Sevastyanov earlier told TASS, the first upper stage created for the Angara-A5 rocket was delivered to the Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia in November. The booster underwent ground-based experimental tests, he added.

As was reported in 2015, the Energia Space Rocket Corporation was developing a new upper stage on the basis of DM boosters for the Angara-A5 launch vehicle. DM boosters are intended to deliver satellites from the support orbit to the target near-Earth orbit, and also to departure trajectories. Last year, DM boosters orbited Spektr-RG and Elektro-L space vehicles.