Angara, which is named after a river in Siberia, is the first new orbit-capable rocket to be developed by Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Designed with a modular approach, it is capable of flying in multiple configurations depending upon mission or payload requirements.

The Angara family of rockets are based around the Universalniy Raketniy Modul (URM), or Universal Rocket Module – analogous to the Common Core Boosters and Common Booster Cores of the American Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. Powered by a single RD-191M engine, the URM-1 forms the first stage of all Angara configurations.