Proton-K
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The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its
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 ...
or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
,
carrier rocket A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...
derived from the earlier
Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
. It was 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 The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
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 ...
. The maiden flight on 10 March 1967 carried a
Soyuz 7K-L1 The Soyuz 7K-L1 "Zond" spacecraft was designed to launch men from the Earth to circle the Moon without going into lunar orbit in the context of the Soviet crewed Moon-flyby program in the Moon race. It was based on the Soyuz 7K-OK. Several mo ...
as part of the
Zond program Zond (russian: Зонд, lit=probe) was the name given to two distinct series of Soviet robotic spacecraft launched between 1964 and 1970. The first series, based on the 3MV planetary probe, was intended to gather information about nearby plan ...
. During the so-called
Moon Race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
these Proton/Soyuz/Zond flights consisted of several uncrewed test flights of
Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...
to highly elliptical or
circumlunar In orbital mechanics, a circumlunar trajectory, trans-lunar trajectory or lunar free return is a type of free return trajectory which takes a spacecraft from Earth, around the far side of the Moon, and back to Earth using only gravity once the ...
orbits with the unrealized aim of landing Soviet cosmonauts on the Moon. It was retired from service in favour of the modernised
Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kaz ...
, making its 310th and final launch on 30 March 2012.


Vehicle description

The baseline Proton-K was a three-stage rocket. Thirty were launched in this configuration, with payloads including all of the Soviet Union's ''Salyut''
space stations A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station is ...
, all
Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
modules with the exception of the
Docking Module A docking compartment is a module of a space station to which visiting spacecraft can dock. Docking Compartment may refer to: * Docking Compartment 1 (Pirs) * Docking Compartment 2 (Poisk) See also * Mini-Research Modules * Mir Docking Module ...
, which was launched on the United States
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
, and the Zarya and Zvezda modules 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 ...
. It was intended to launch Chelomey's crewed
TKS spacecraft The TKS spacecraft (russian: Транспортный корабль снабжения, , ''Transport Supply Spacecraft'', GRAU index 11F72) was a Soviet spacecraft conceived in the late 1960s for resupply flights to the military Almaz space s ...
, and succeeded in launching four uncrewed tests flights prior to the program's cancellation. It was also intended for Chelomey's 20-ton LKS
spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...
that was never realised. Like other members of the
Universal Rocket The Universal Rocket or ''UR'' family of missiles and carrier rockets is a Russian, previously Soviet rocket family. Intended to allow the same technology to be used in all Soviet rockets, the UR is produced by the Khrunichev State Research and Pr ...
family, the Proton-K was fuelled by
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 ...
and
nitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...
. These were
hypergolic A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other. The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. The ...
fuels which burn on contact, avoiding the need for an ignition system, and can be stored at ambient temperatures. This avoids the need for low-temperature–tolerant components, and allowed the rocket to sit on the pad fully fuelled for long periods of time. In contrast,
cryogenic fuel Cryogenic fuels are fuels that require storage at extremely low temperatures in order to maintain them in a liquid state. These fuels are used in machinery that operates in space (e.g. rockets and satellites) where ordinary fuel cannot be used, d ...
s would have required periodic topping-up of propellants as they boil off. The fuels used on the Proton, were, however,
corrosive A corrosive substance is one that will damage or destroy other substances with which it comes into contact by means of a chemical reaction. Etymology The word ''corrosive'' is derived from the Latin verb ''corrodere'', which means ''to gnaw'', ...
and
toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...
and required special handling. The Russian Government paid for the cleanup of residual propellent in spent stages that impact downrange. Proton components were built in factories near Moscow, then transported by rail to the final assembly point near the pad. The first stage of the Proton-K consisted of a central oxidiser tank, and six outrigger fuel tanks. This separated as one piece from the second stage, which was attached by means of a lattice structure interstage. The second stage ignited prior to first stage separation, and the top of the first stage was insulated to ensure that it retained its structural integrity until separation. The first stage used six RD-253 engines, designed by
Valentin Glushko Valentin Petrovich Glushko (russian: Валенти́н Петро́вич Глушко́; uk, Валентин Петрович Глушко, Valentyn Petrovych Hlushko; born 2 September 1908 – 10 January 1989) was a Soviet engineer and the m ...
. The RD-253 is a single-chamber engine and uses a
staged combustion Staged combustion is a method used to reduce the emission of nitrogen oxides ( NOx) during combustion. There are two methods for staged combustion: air staged supply and fuel staged supply. Applications of staged combustion include boilers and ro ...
cycle. The first-stage guidance system was open-loop, which required significant amounts of propellant to be held in reserve. The third stage was powered by an
RD-0210 The RD-0210 ( GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually hi ...
engine and four vernier nozzles, with common systems. The verniers provided steering, eliminating the need for
gimbal A gimbal is a pivoted support that permits rotation of an object about an axis. A set of three gimbals, one mounted on the other with orthogonal pivot axes, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain independent of ...
ling of the main engine. They also aided stage separation, and acted as
ullage motor Ullage motors (also known as ullage engines or ullage rockets) are relatively small, independently fueled rocket engines that may be fired prior to main engine ignition, when the vehicle is in a zero-g situation. The resulting acceleration causes ...
s. Ducts built into the structure channelled vernier exhaust before stage separation. The third stage guidance system was also used to control the first and second stages earlier in flight. Many launches used an upper stage to boost the payload into a higher orbit.
Blok D Blok D (russian: Блок Д meaning Block D) is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems, including the N1, Proton-K and Zenit. The stage (and its derivatives) has been included in more than 320 launched roc ...
upper stages were used on forty flights, the majority of which were for the
Luna Luna commonly refers to: * Earth's Moon, named "Luna" in Latin * Luna (goddess), the ancient Roman personification of the Moon Luna may also refer to: Places Philippines * Luna, Apayao * Luna, Isabela * Luna, La Union * Luna, San Jose Roma ...
and Zond programmes. Ten flights used the Blok D-1, mostly to launch spacecraft towards
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
. Blok D-2 upper stages were used three times, with the
Fobos 1 ''Phobos 1'' was an uncrewed Soviet space probe of the Phobos Program launched from the Baikonour launch facility on 7 July 1988. Its intended mission was to explore Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. The mission failed on 2 September 19 ...
,
Fobos 2 ''Phobos 2'' was the last space probe designed by the Soviet Union. It was designed to explore the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. It was launched on 12 July 1988, and entered orbit on 29 January 1989. ''Phobos 2'' operated nominally throug ...
and
Mars 96 Mars 96 (sometimes called Mars-8) was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage bu ...
spacecraft. The
Blok DM Blok D (russian: Блок Д meaning Block D) is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems, including the N1, Proton-K and Zenit. The stage (and its derivatives) has been included in more than 320 launched r ...
upper stage was used on 66 launches. The most commonly used upper stage was the Blok DM-2, which was used on 109 flights, mostly with
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 ...
and
Raduga Raduga (russian: Радуга:'rainbow') can refer to : * MKB Raduga, a Russian maker of missile systems formerly known as OKB Raduga * VBK-Raduga, an unmanned reentry capsule used to return material from the Russian Mir space station * Raduga (sa ...
satellites. Fifteen launches used the modernised Block DM-2M stage, mostly carrying
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 ...
satellites, however other satellites, including
Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...
's SESAT 1, also used this configuration. Two
Araks , az, Araz, fa, ارس, tr, Aras The Aras (also known as the Araks, Arax, Araxes, or Araz) is a river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan excl ...
satellites were launched using Block DM-5 upper stages. The
Block DM1 Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
, a commercial version of the DM-2, was used to launch Inmarsat-3 F2. The
Block DM2 Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
upper stage was used to launch three groups of seven
Iridium Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...
satellites, including
Iridium 33 Iridium 33 was a communications satellite launched by Russia for Iridium Communications. It was launched into low Earth orbit from Site 81/23 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 01:36 UTC on 14 September 1997, by a Proton-K rocket with a Block DM2 upp ...
. This configuration was also used to launch
Integral In mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented i ...
for the
European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
. Block DM3 stages were used on twenty five launches, almost exclusively carrying commercial satellites. Telstar 5 was launched with a Block DM4. The
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 was used for four launches; three carrying payloads for the Russian Government, and one commercial launch with GE-9 for
GE Americom SES Americom was a major commercial satellite operator of North American geosynchronous satellites based in the United States. The company started as RCA Americom in 1975 before being bought by General Electric in 1986 and then later acquired by ...
. One launch was reported to have used a Block DM-3 upper stage, however this may have been a reporting error, and it is unclear whether this launch actually used a DM-3, DM3, or DM-2.


Launch failures

:''Source''International reference guide to space launch systems, Fourth Edition, pp. 308-314,


See also

* Comparison of heavy lift launch systems *
List of Proton launches , rockets of the UR-500 / Proton family have accumulated 429 launches since 1965, 381 of which were successful, yielding an success rate. For launches in a specific decade, see: * List of Proton launches (1965–1969) * List of Proton launche ...


References

{{Russian launch vehicles Universal Rocket (rocket family) Space launch vehicles of Russia Space launch vehicles of the Soviet Union Vehicles introduced in 1967