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The Blagovest spacecraft are built by ISS Reshetnev \u2013 the successor to the Soviet-era NPO PM design bureau that was headed by Mikhail Reshetnev. Blagovest is based around the Ekspress 2000 bus that has previously been used for the civilian Ekspress-AM5 and AM6 and Yamal 401 satellites. Once in orbit the satellite will deploy a pair of solar arrays to generate power. It is expected to remain in service for fifteen years.<\/p>\n
The Blagovest constellation is expected to consist of at least four satellites in geostationary orbit. It will include spacecraft at longitudes of 45 and 128 degrees East \u2013 Kosmos 2520 operates at 45 degrees East.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s launch of Blagovest No.12L follows the successful deployment of Blagovest No.11L, the first satellite in the series, last August. Now known as Kosmos 2520, Blagovest No.11L was deployed by a Proton-M rocket with a Briz-M upper stage flying out of Site 81\/24 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Blagovest No.12L is riding to orbit aboard the same type of rocket, flying from the same launch pad.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-18-124258.jpg\")
<\/p>\nProton-M on a previous launch \u2013 via Roscosmos<\/p>\n
Proton has served as a workhorse of the Russian \u2013 and previously Soviet \u2013 space programmes for many years. First developed in the 1960s, Proton was derived from Vladimir Chelomei\u2019s Universal Rocket 500 (UR-500), a massive intercontinental ballistic missile designed to carry the Soviet Union\u2019s heaviest nuclear warheads like the Tsar Bomba. While the two-stage UR-500 never flew as a missile, four were launched between 1965 and 1966 with N-4 scientific satellites \u2013 named Proton once in orbit. The rocket was named after these payloads.<\/p>\n
With a modified second stage and a new third stage, the UR-500 became the Proton-K. This rocket allowed the USSR to deploy most of its heaviest satellites and \u2013 with the addition of the Blok-D family of upper stages \u2013 gave the country access to geostationary orbit and the ability to launch new and heavier missions to the Moon, Venus and Mars.<\/p>\n
Space Shuttle
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Proton-K was also to have launched the Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft \u2013 also known as Zond \u2013 on manned flybys of the Moon. The rocket\u2019s maiden flight in March 1967 \u2013 using a four-stage vehicle with a Blok-D upper stage \u2013 carried an unmanned prototype. During its early years, Proton-K was extremely unreliable \u2013 recording eight launch failures from ten flights in 1969 \u2013 and this, combined with the resulting delays, led to the manned Lunar flybys being abandoned. The rocket\u2019s reliability improved after a heavily-instrumented suborbital test launch in 1970 and the following year a three-stage Proton-K deployed Salyut 1, the first space station.<\/p>\n
Proton-K rockets launched all of the space stations in the Salyut programme \u2013 both the civilian DOS and military Almaz vehicles. The Proton-K also deployed all modules of the later Mir space station except the Stykovochnyy Otsek docking module that was delivered by Space Shuttle Atlantis, and the Zarya and Zvezda modules of the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n