Proton rocket

E84074

The Proton rocket is a heavy-lift Russian expendable launch vehicle widely used to place large payloads, including space station modules and communications satellites, into orbit.

Aliases (4)

Statements (47)
Predicate Object
instanceOf expendable launch vehicle
heavy-lift launch vehicle
countryOfOrigin Russia
designFeature three-stage core with optional upper stage
uses toxic propellants
developedBy Soviet Union
enteredService 1960s
family Proton-K
Proton-M
fuel unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine
launchAzimuth primarily prograde orbits
launchConfiguration core stage with strap-on tanks
launchRecord hundreds of launches
launchServiceEntry commercial market in the 1990s
launchSite Baikonur Cosmodrome
launchType expendable
manufacturer Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center
market commercial launch services
massClass heavy-lift
notableCustomer Eutelsat
Inmarsat
Intelsat
notableUse launching GLONASS navigation satellites
launching International Space Station modules
launching Mir space station modules
launching Salyut space station modules
operator International Launch Services
Roscosmos
orbitTypesServed geostationary transfer orbit
highly elliptical orbit
low Earth orbit
originPeriod Cold War era
oxidizer nitrogen tetroxide
propellantType hypergolic propellants
stages 3
4
status operational
successorConsidered Angara rocket family
typicalPayload large communications satellites
space station modules
upperStageOptions Blok DM
Briz-M
usedFor geostationary transfer orbit missions
interplanetary missions
launching communications satellites
launching space station modules
placing payloads into orbit


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