On July 31, 2020 at 00:25:19 Moscow time, the Proton-M carrier rocket with the Briz-M upper stage and the Russian telecommunications spacecraft Express-103 was launched from the launcher No. 39 of the launch pad No. 200 of the Baikonur cosmodrome and “Express-80”, manufactured in the company “Information Satellite Systems” named after Academician MF Reshetnev “(part of the State Corporation” Roscosmos “).
In accordance with the cyclogram, 587 seconds after launch, the head unit (a bundle of the upper stage and two spacecraft) separated from the third stage of the carrier in the normal mode. Further insertion of telecommunications vehicles into target orbits is carried out due to the operation of the main propulsion system of the upper stage. The total duration of the launch from the launch of the launch vehicle to the separation of the second satellite will be 18 hours 16 minutes 40 seconds.
The Proton-M launch vehicle has been serially manufactured at the Khrunichev Center (part of the Roskosmos State Corporation) and has been used to launch payloads into specified orbits and departure trajectories within the framework of federal and commercial programs since 2001. Over the years of operation, the Proton-M rocket has gone through four phases of deep upgrades, which have significantly improved its energy-mass and environmental characteristics when removing heavy single and paired payloads.
