Angara is destined to replace the venerable Proton rockets that Khrunichev has been building and launching for almost 30 years. Company officials expect the rocket to be a workhorse for both Russian government and commercial missions. They will team up with Lockheed Martin International Launch Services to market the vehicle.

"A considerable number of companies made proposals regarding the joint operation of Angara, among them Lockheed Martin," Khrunichev director Anatoly Kiselyov told space.com.

Kiselyov said Lockheed Martin was chosen as Khrunichevs marketing partner because the two companies already have a joint agreement to sell Proton launch services to satellite manufacturers. The U.S. company agreed to spend $68 million to market Angara launch services.

"We have been working side-by-side [with Lockheed Martin] for many years already and know how to do business together," Kiselyov said.

Khrunichev is developing a family of Angara launch vehicles that will range from small rockets capable of lofting payloads weighing up to 4 metric tons to larger vehicles that can carry cargoes weighing up to 30 tons.

The Angara rockets will be partly re-usable. Equipped with wings and jet engines, the rockets first stage is being designed to return to a launch site.

Khrunichev and Lockheed Martin plan to stage Angara missions from Zenit launch pads at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Primarily used for military missions, the cosmodrome is located in northern Russia.

The companies, however, also could launch Angara vehicles from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan or a new launch site at Svobodny in the Russian far east.

The decree signed by Putin paves the way for the company to launch foreign satellites on Angara vehicle. It emphasizes, however, that the launch of Russian military or other satellites in the interests of the federal space program will have priority over commercial missions.

All Angara flights will be supervised by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency.