Today, on December 21, the “Proton-M” space rocket was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome with a spacecraft in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

All prelaunch operations, launch and flight of the “Proton-M” launch vehicle (LV) were carried out in the normal mode.

The successful launch of the spacecraft into the target orbit was provided by the “Breeze-M” upper stage.

The new satellite has been accepted for control by the ground-based facilities of the Air and Space Forces of Russia.

It was the 2nd in 2018 and the 418th launch in the history of the “Proton” launch vehicle (including all its modifications).

The “Proton” carrier rocket and the “Breeze-M” upper stage were developed and mass-produced by the Khrunichev Space Center.

The “Proton-M” LV is an upgraded version of the heavy-class “Proton” carrier rocket with improved operational and environmental performance.

Thanks to the use of the “Breeze-M” upper stage, the “Proton-M” rocket is capable of delivering a payload of more than 6 tons to a geotransition orbit.

The first launch of the “Proton-M” LV with the upper stage “Breeze-M” was performed on April 7, 2001.

Since then, this modification of the “Proton” rocket has been used in the 104th space launches.