A Proton rocket. Photo: Roscosmos

[Via Satellite 04-11-2016] Russia’s Proton rocket, produced today by Khrunichev Space Center, marked its 20th year since commercial introduction Saturday. Proton entered the global commercial launch services market April 9, 1996 with the successful launch of the Astra 1F telecommunications satellite on a Proton K.

Salyut Design Bureau, designer of the Proton launch vehicle, and Khrunichev Machine-Building Plant, manufacturer of Proton, merged following a presidential decree from the Russian government in 1993, forming Khrunichev Space Center. That same year Khrunichev Space Center, RSC Energia and Lockheed Corporation established Lockheed-Khrunichev-Energia (LKE), a joint venture tasked with marketing Proton launch services. On June 7, 1995 LKE reorganized into International Launch Services (ILS), which grew to become one of the world’s biggest launch service providers. In May of 2008, Khrunichev Space Center acquired controlling stake in ILS.

Proton has suffered six partial or total launch failures since 2010, with the latest in May 2015, leading to concern over the rocket’s reliability. In October 2015 ILS appointed executives to improve reliability, insight and oversight of Proton launches. In the past eight months, Khrunichev Space Center and its subsidiary ILS signed a multi-launch strategic partnership agreement with Eutelsat providing for several Proton launches between 2016 and 2023. Additionally, in October 2015, Intelsat signed a three-party agreement with Khrunichev and ILS for launches of five spacecraft using the Proton launch vehicle over the next seven years.

The Proton M launch vehicle with the Breeze M upper stage is capable of delivering payloads of more than 6 tons to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), and in case of the direct injection into Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), up to 3.7 tons. Counting all variants, Proton has flown a total of 410 times since its first flight in 1965. The launch vehicle has experienced several upgrades, and is still undergoing modernization, according to Khrunichev.