OREANDA-NEWS. March 18, 2009. Khrunichev Space Center shipped another Proton-M to Baikonur yesterday. The rocket carrier is to be used for launch of the ProtoStar telecommunications satellite at the end of April- beginning of May. The satellite will be injected into orbit by the Breeze-M upper stage.

Proton-M, produced by Khrunichev, has been in operation since 1965. More than 300 launches have been made. Heavy-lift Proton-M delivers Russian and commercial payloads into orbit. The rocket has been providing commercial launch services for 10 years, and made about 50 launches within this time.