Nikita Khrushchev asked designer Vladimir Chelomei to build a rocket capable of carrying a huge payload of thermonuclear bombs to an enemy city. It would become the UR-500K Proton. Fortunately, it was never used for the task for which it was designed. It made its first flight in July 1965. In 2001, it was upgraded to the Proton M. After reliability problems in the early years, it became the workhorse for heavy lifts in the Russian program. Since then, the UR-500 family of launchers has completed 427 launches, with 44 failures and 4 partial failures. It carries 21 tons to LEO orbit (e.g., the ISS’s Zarya and Zvezda) and 2.5 tons to GEO or GLONASS. It is manufactured at Khrunichev in Moscow, part of the Russian-American Int’l Launch Services. It has been offered to Westerners since 1983, and the first such launch was in 1992 with Inmarsat (maritime communications). It uses nitric acid, which releases orange-brown smoke. It has auxiliary tanks on the sides that are assembled once on the launch pad.
