The Proton-M, (Протон-М)

GRAU index The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the ...

8K82M or , is an

expendable ''Expendable'' is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.Avon Books; HarperCollins Canada; SFBC/AvoNova. Paperback edition 1997, Eos Books. It i ...

Russian

heavy-lift launch vehicle A heavy-lift launch vehicle, HLV or HLLV, is an orbital launch vehicle capable of lifting between (by NASA classification) or between (by Russian classification) into low Earth orbit (LEO).50t payloads" , operational heavy-lift launch vehicl ...

derived from the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

-developed Proton. It is built by

Khrunichev The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (''Государственный космический научно-производственный центр (ГКНПЦ) имени М. В. Хру́ничева'' in Russian) is ...

, and launched from sites 81 and

200 __NOTOC__ Year 200 ( CC) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 953 ''Ab ur ...

at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. Commercial launches are marketed by

International Launch Services International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS) is a joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Angara and Proton rocket launch services. Proton launches take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan while Angara is l ...

(ILS), and generally use Site 200/39. The first Proton-M launch occurred on 7 April 2001. Proton flew its most recent mission on 13 December 2021, launching two

Ekspress Ekspress (russian: Экспресс meaning Express), is a series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC). The first satellite of this kind was launched on 13 October 1994. The satelli ...

communication satellites into geostationary orbit. As of August 2020, a number of

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

and other Russian government missions remain on Proton launch manifest.

Vehicle description

The Proton-M launch vehicle consists of three stages; all of them powered by

liquid rocket engine A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high specific impulse (''I''sp). This allows the volume of the propellant ta ...

s using the hypergolic propellant combination of dinitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer, and

unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH; 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, НДМГ or codenamed Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is used as a rocket propellant. It is a colorless liquid, with a sharp, fishy, ammonia-like smell ...

for fuel. The first stage is unique in that it consists of a central cylindrical oxidizer tank with the same diameter as the other two stages with six fuel tanks attached to its circumference, each carrying an engine. The engines in this stage can swivel tangentially up to 7.0° from the neutral position, providing full

thrust vector control Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the ve ...

. The rationale for this design is logistics: the diameter of the oxidizer tanks and the two following stages is the maximum that can be delivered by railroad to Baikonur. However, within Baikonur the fully assembled stack is transported again by rail, as it has enough clearance. The second stage uses a conventional cylindrical design. It is powered by three

RD-0210 The RD-0210 (GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning N2O4 and UDMH in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. They have single nozzle, possess TVC and are the latest evolution ...

engines and one

RD-0211 The RD-0210 (GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning N2O4 and UDMH in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. They have single nozzle, possess TVC and are the latest evolution ...

engine. The RD-0211 is a version of the RD-0210 modified with a heat exchanger used to pressurize the propellant tanks. The second stage is joined to the first stage through a net instead of a closed inter-stage, to allow the exhaust to escape because the second stage begins firing seconds before separation. Known as "hot staging," this eliminates the need for ullage thrusters on the second stage. Thrust vector control is provided by engine gimballing. The third stage is also of a conventional cylindrical design. It contains the avionics system that controls the first two stages. It uses one

RD-0213 The RD-0210 ( GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning N2O4 and UDMH in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. They have single nozzle, possess TVC and are the latest evolutio ...

which is a fixed (non-gimballed) version of the RD-0210, and one

RD-0214 The RD-0214 ( GRAU Index: 8D811) is a rocket vernier engine burning N2O4 and UDMH in a gas generator cycle. It has four nozzles that can each gimbal 45 in plane to provide TVC to the RD-0212 propulsion module of Proton third stage. It is a ...

which is a four nozzle vernier engine used for thrust vector control. The nozzles of the RD-0214 can turn up to 45.0°; they are placed around (with some separation), and moderately above the nozzle of the RD-0213. The Proton-M features modifications to the lower stages to reduce structural mass, increase thrust, and utilise more propellant. A closed-loop guidance system is used on the first stage, which allows more complete consumption of propellant. This increases the rocket's performance slightly compared to previous variants, and reduces the amount of toxic chemicals remaining in the stage when it impacts downrange. It can place up to into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

. With an upper stage, it can place a 3000 kg payload into geostationary orbit (GEO), or a 5500 kg payload into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). Efforts were also made to reduce dependency on foreign component suppliers.

Upper stage

Most Proton-M launches have used a

Briz-M The Briz-K, Briz-KM and Briz-M (russian: Бриз-К, КM and M meaning ''Breeze-K, KM and M'') are Russian liquid-propellant rocket orbit insertion upper stages manufactured by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and used ...

upper stage to propel the spacecraft into a higher orbit. Launches have also been made with Blok-DM upper stages: six launches were made with the Blok DM-02 upper stage carrying

GLONASS GLONASS (russian: ГЛОНАСС, label=none, ; rus, links=no, Глобальная навигационная спутниковая система, r=Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, t=Global Navigation Satellite System) is ...

spacecraft, while two further GLONASS launches have used the

Blok DM-03 The Blok DM-03 (russian: Блок ДМ-03 meaning ''Block DM-03''), GRAU index ''11S861-03'', is a Russian upper stage used as an optional fourth stage on the Proton-M heavy-lift rocket. Three have been launched, the first in December 2010; t ...

. The DM-03 will be used for a total of five launches; a further GLONASS launch is planned along with two launches of

satellites. As of 2013, no Proton-M launches have been made without an upper stage. However, this configuration is manifested to launch the

Nauka (ISS module) ''Nauka'' ( rus, Наука, p=nɐˈukə, litt. ''Science''), also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module-Upgrade (MLM-U; Russian: Многоцелевой лабораторный модуль, усоверше́нствованный ...

and

European Robotic Arm The European Robotic Arm (ERA) is a robotic arm that is attached the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) of the International Space Station. Launched to the ISS in July 2021; it is the first robotic arm that is able to work on the Russian Segment of ...

(ERA) of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

, launched together in July 2021.

Payload fairing

Commercial launches conducted by ILS use two kinds of fairings: *PLF-BR-13305 short faring. *PLF-BR-15255 long faring. Both fairings have a diameter of 4.35 metre.

Proton-M Enhanced (M+)

On 7 July 2007,

launched the first Proton-M Enhanced rocket (also called M+), which carried the

DirecTV-10 T10 (formerly DirecTV-10) is a Boeing model 702 direct broadcast satellite that provides high-definition television (HDTV) to DirecTV subscribers in North America.vernier engines on the Briz-M upper stage, and

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

reduction throughout the rocket, including thinner fuel tank walls on the first stage, and use of composite materials on all other stages. The second launch of this variant occurred on 18 August 2008, and was used to place Inmarsat 4 F3 into orbit. The baseline Proton-M was retired in November 2007, in favour of the Enhanced variant. Frank McKenna, CEO of ILS, has indicated that in 2010 the Phase III Proton design would become the standard ILS configuration, with the ability to lift 6150 kg to GTO. On 19 October 2011,

ViaSat-1 ViaSat-1 is a high throughput communications satellite owned by Viasat Inc. and Telesat Canada. Launched October 19, 2011 aboard a Proton rocket, it held the Guinness record for the world's highest capacity communications satellite with a total ...

weighing 6740 kg was lifted into GTO by the Proton-M/Briz-M Phase III.

Light and Medium variants

Proton Light and Proton Medium were two proposed variants with a lower payload capacity at a reduced price. Originally proposed end of 2016, Proton Light was cancelled in 2017 and Proton Medium was put on "indefinite hold" in 2018. The variants were designed to reduce the cost for launching medium and small commercial communications satellites into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The variants were planned with a 2 + 1 stage architecture based on 3 stage Proton/Briz M, but dispensing with the 2nd stage and featuring minor lengthening of the other two stages. The Proton Light 1st stage was planned with 4 main engines and external tanks to the 6 used by Proton Medium and Proton-M. The cost was expected to be competitive with Ariane and SpaceX. The planned maiden flights were 2018 for Proton Medium and 2019 for Proton Light. They were expected to use Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 81/24 and would have required a new transporter-erector system and other ground infrastructure changes. The full-sized Proton-M can currently lift 6300 kg into a standard Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO); Proton Medium was planned to lift 5000 kg into a similar GTO while Proton Light was rated for 3600 kg. The 3000–5000 kg payload range includes all-electric and hybrid satellites that use ion thrusters to slowly make their way into geostationary orbit (GEO).

Launch profile

In a typical mission, a Proton-M is accompanied by a

upper stage. The Proton-M launches the orbital unit (that is: the payload, the payload adapter and the Briz-M) into a slightly suborbital trajectory. The first and second stages and the payload fairing crash into designated crash sites; the third stage crashes into the ocean. After the third stage separates, the orbital unit coasts for a brief period, then Briz-M performs its first firing to achieve

orbital injection Orbit insertion is the spaceflight operation of adjusting a spacecraft’s momentum, in particular to allow for entry into a stable orbit around a planet, moon, or other celestial body. This maneuver involves either deceleration from a speed in ex ...

into a parking orbit with 51.5°

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

, at 170 km to 230 km altitude (the Mission Planner's Guide also mentions 64.8° and 72.6° as standard inclinations for the parking orbit). Subsequently, the Briz-M performs orbital maneuvers to place the payload into either its final orbit or a transfer orbit. If a transfer orbit is used the final maneuver(s) are performed by the payload on its own propulsion system.

Reliability

, 112 Proton-M launches had occurred, of which 11 failed or partially failed, yielding a success rate of . Four of these failures were the results of problems with the Proton-M itself, six were caused by the

upper stage malfunctioning and leaving cargo in a useless orbit (albeit on two instances the satellites were able to maneuver to correct orbit under their own propulsion), and one was the result of a

upper stage being incorrectly fueled, leaving the Proton too heavy to achieve orbit.

Notable launch failures

In September 2007, a Proton-M/Briz-M rocket carrying Japan's

JCSAT-11 JCSAT-11, was a geostationary communications satellite ordered by JSAT Corporation (now SKY Perfect JSAT Group) which was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin on the A2100 platform. The satellite was designated to be used as an on-orbit, ...

communications satellite failed to achieve orbit, and fell in the Ulytau District of

. An investigation determined that first and second stages of the rocket had failed to separate, due to a damaged pyrotechnic cable. On 5 December 2010, the upper stage and payloads failed to reach orbital velocity due to overloading of the upper stage with 1500 kg of liquid oxygen, resulting in the loss of three

satellites it was carrying. In July 2013, a Proton-M/DM-03 carrying three

satellites failed shortly after liftoff. The booster began pitching left and right along the vertical axis within a few seconds of launch. Attempts by the onboard guidance computer to correct the flight trajectory failed and ended up putting it into an unrecoverable pitchover. The upper stages and payload were stripped off 24 seconds after launch due to the forces experienced followed by the first stage breaking apart and erupting in flames. Impact with the ground occurred 30 seconds after liftoff. The preliminary report of the investigation into the July 2013 failure indicated that three of the first stage angular velocity sensors, responsible for yaw control, were installed in an incorrect orientation. As the error affected the redundant sensors as well as the primary ones, the rocket was left with no yaw control, which resulted in the failure. Telemetry data also indicated that a pad umbilical had detached prematurely, suggesting that the Proton may have launched several tenths of a second early, before the engines reached full thrust. In May 2014, another Proton-M launch ended in failure, resulting in the loss of an

telecommunications satellite. Unlike the 2013 crash, this occurred more than nine minutes into the flight when one of the third stage verniers shut off, causing loss of attitude control. An automatic shutdown and destruct command was issued and the remains of the upper stages and payload impacted in northern China. An investigation committee concluded that the failure was most likely due to one of the turbopumps breaking off its mount, rupturing a propellant line and causing the vernier to lose thrust. In May 2015, a Proton-M with a Mexican telecommunications satellite, MexSat-1, was lost due to problems with the third stage. Russian sources indicated that the problems had been the same as with the 2014 failure. An investigation determined that the third stage vernier engine

failed due to excessive vibration loads, which had been caused by an increasing imbalance of the rotor in the turbopump and concluded it was the same cause of a prior accident in 1988. In a June 2016 launch, one of the four second stage engines shut down prematurely. The Briz-M was able to make up for the resulting stage under-performance and deliver the Intelsat 31 satellite to the intended orbit. Pending an investigation, the rocket was grounded for the rest of 2016 and first half of 2017: Proton-M at that time planned to return to the launch pad around June 2017 to deliver the EchoStar-21 satellite to orbit. On 28 January 2017, the Russian government announced, as a result of the investigation into the failure of

Progress MS-04 Progress MS-04 (), identified by NASA as Progress 65P, was a Progress mission launched by Roscosmos in an unsuccessful attempt to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). Pre-launch The Progress MS-04 was launched into orbit on the ...

, the recall of all Proton-M 2nd and 3rd stage engines produced by the

Voronezh Mechanical Plant Voronezh Mechanical Plant (Russian: , ''ВМЗ'') is a Russian engine and heavy machinery manufacturing plant. It is located in the city of Voronezh, in the Voronezh Oblast. History Voronezh Mechanical Plant started as a diesel engine manufacturi ...

, including the disassembly of three completed Proton rockets and a three and a half month suspension of flights. The investigation found that cheaper alternatives, unable to resist high temperatures, had been used in place of engine parts containing valuable minerals, and that production and certification documentation had been falsified. Proton returned to flight 8 June 2017, a full year after the previous flight on 6 June 2016.

Upper stage malfunctions

Among the various Proton-M failures, some have been caused by the upper stages used to allow the rocket to deliver payloads to higher orbit, notably the failures in May 2014 and May 2015. At least five earlier launches also succumbed to problems with the Briz-M upper stage;

Arabsat-4A The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (often abbreviated as Arabsat) is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and ...

in February 2006, AMC-14 in March 2008,

Ekspress AM4 Ekspress-AM4 was a Russian communications satellite placed into the wrong orbit from a faulty Briz-M rocket stage. This satellite was to be part of the Ekspress series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Russian Satellite Commu ...

in August 2011,

Telkom-3 Telkom-3 is an Indonesian communications satellite which failed to reach its target orbit due to a launch failure on 6 August 2012. It was built by ISS Reshetnev for Indonesian telecommunications provider PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia. It was b ...

and

Ekspress MD2 Ekspress-MD2 is a Russian communications satellite which was lost due to a launch failure on 6 August 2012. Equipped with eight C-band transponders and 1 L-band transponder, it was intended to be located in geostationary orbit at a longitude o ...

in August 2012 and Yamal-402 in December 2012. All of the payloads were unusable except for Yamal-402, which was able to correct its orbit at the expense of several years' operational life, and AMC-14 which was sold to the

US Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

after SES determined that it couldn't complete its original mission.

Effect on government and industry

As a result of the July 2013, Proton-M launch failure, a major reorganization of the Russian space industry was undertaken. The

United Rocket and Space Corporation The United Rocket and Space Corporation (russian: Объединенная ракетно-космическая корпорация) or URSC was a Russian joint-stock corporation formed by the Russian government in 2013 to renationalize the Ru ...

was formed as a

joint-stock A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders are ...

corporation by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

in August 2013 to consolidate the Russian

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually cons ...

sector. Deputy Prime Minister

Dmitry Rogozin Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin (russian: link=no, Дми́трий Оле́гович Рого́зин; born 21 December 1963) is a Russian politician who served as director general of Roscosmos from 2018 to July 2022. He previously served as deputy ...

said "the failure-prone space sector is so troubled that it needs state supervision to overcome its problems". Three days following the failure, the Russian government had announced that "extremely harsh measures" would be taken "and spell the end of the ussianspace industry as we know it".

Environmental impact

Critics claim that Proton rocket fuel (

(UDMH)) and debris created by Russia's space programme is poisoning areas of Russia and

. Residents claim that acid rain falls after some launches. Anatoly Kuzin, deputy director of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, has however denied these claims, saying: "We did special research into the issue. The level of acidity in the atmosphere is not affected by the rocket launches ndthere is no data to prove any link between the illnesses, in Altai town and the influence of rocket fuel components or space activity of any kind".

Notes

References

{{Russian launch vehicles Universal Rocket (rocket family) Space launch vehicles of Russia Vehicles introduced in 2001