OREANDA-NEWS. September 25, 2008. Russian Proton launcher successfully lifted off from Baikonur`s pad 81. Proton carries 3 Glonass-M satellites aboard.

In several hours the satellite unit shall separate from the upper stage (04.21 p.m. Moscow time). For the Proton launchers, its the 7-th successful launch this year (4 commercial launches for the sake of the foreign causomers, and 3 launches under the Federal Space Program and for the Ministry of Defence). Among the heavy-lift launchers, Proton made more missions than any other space rocket in the world in 2008.

The orbital unit which consists of the satellites and the DM upper stage has already separated from the third stage of the launcher. DM upper stage performs insertion of the satellites into the orbit now.
Two pre-launch campaigns are conducted currently for the space rockets produced by Khrunichev Space Center:
• Proton-M is to loft Astra-1М satellite at the end of October (Baikonur)
• Rockot is to orbit GOCE satellite in October (Plesetsk).