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The Russian-manufactured Proton rocket has been flying into space since before humans landed on the Moon. First launched in 1965, the rocket was initially conceived of as a booster to fly two-person crews around the Moon, as the Soviet Union sought to beat NASA into deep space. Indeed, some of its earliest missions launched creatures, including two turtles, to the Moon and back.

But now, Russian officials confirm, the Proton rocket will finally reach its end. In an interview with a Russian publication, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said that production of the Proton booster will cease as production shifts to the new Angara booster. (A translation of this article was provided to Ars by Robinson Mitchell, a former US Air Force Airborne Cryptologic Language Analyst). No new Proton contracts are likely to be signed.

Presently, Proton rockets are built at the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow, then they're transported to a launch site in Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Angara rocket, which has made just two test flights back in 2014, will be produced in a new factory in Omsk, a city in Siberia.

The decision will bring down the curtain on one of the longest-used and most versatile rockets in world history. As the United States developed the space shuttle in the 1970s and began flying it in the 1980s, the Russian space agency saw the opportunity to commercialize the Proton rocket, and by the end of the 1990s, the booster became a major moneymaker for the Russian space industry. With a capacity of 22.8 tons to low-Earth orbit, it became a dominant player in the commercial market for heavier satellites.

Proton falls

It remained so during much of the 2000s, but as Ars has previously reported, the lack of technical oversight began manifesting itself in an increasing rate of failures. At the end of 2010, one Proton plunged into the ocean because too much propellant had been mistakenly loaded into its upper stage. In 2013, another vehicle performed a fiery dance seconds after liftoff because flight control sensors were hammered into the rocket’s compartment upside down.

More failures have followed in recent years. These problems, combined with the rapid rise of low-cost alternatives such as SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, have caused the number of Proton launches in a given year to dwindle from eight or so to just one or two.

This shrinking market has opened the door to the Angara rocket, which has the advantage of not using environmentally hazardous fuel for each of its stages—Proton engines used nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine. This has led to concerns about acid rain and other contamination down-range of the Proton rocket's launch site.

Whether the Angara booster can capture anything close to the Proton's once highly profitable share of the global launch market remains uncertain.

"Roskosmos" announced the end of the flights of rockets "Proton"

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The other day, quite unexpectedly for everyone, Roskosmos, in the person of its head, Dmitry Rogozin, announced a decision to stop work on the Proton project. True, this will not be done immediately, but only after Roskosmos has created and shipped all the rocket-carriers stipulated in the contracts. After the "Protons" are canceled, only Angara will fly into space, RIA Novosti reports.

"The task is set as follows: in accordance with already signed contracts to produce the necessary number of our legendary" Protons "and then close this project. Then fly exclusively on the "Angara" ", - said Rogozin. It should be noted that the development of carrier rockets Proton started in 1961. At that time, it was considered normal practice to use a fuel such as heptyl. At present, it does not satisfy most of the requirements for fuel rocket carriers, either for the specific impulse of engines that operate on such fuel, or for safety in relation to the environment.

Among other things, the "Protons" have a fairly high level of accident rate, higher than most competitors. There are 49 unsuccessful launches, 404 successful ones. It turns out that one failure accounts for about 12 normal launches. The probability of an accident, as we see, is quite high. All this has led to the fact that the cost of insurance risks when launching anything whatsoever "Proto" has increased dramatically in 2013 and 2014.

But that's not all. Another disadvantage of the "Protons" is that they can go into space only from the launching pad of the Baikonur cosmodrome. This dramatically increases the risks of postponing the launch in the event of problems between Russia and Kazakhstan. If relations deteriorate between countries, then "Proton" can be put on the joke without reliable soon to restart. It is known that Kazakhstan takes a tidy sum for renting Baikonur. And this amount is higher than what could be due to heptyl, which is used as fuel. It is heptyl, as the Kazakh side reasonably believes, is extremely dangerous for the steppes, which are relatively near the cosmodrome.

Proceeding from all that was said above, the leadership of Roskosmos made a decision to stop work on the "Proto". The decision was made despite the fact that the cost of launching the "Proton" is quite low. In the 1990's and 2000's competitors from the domestic carrier rocket in this indicator was not particularly. On an equal footing, with certain reservations, the American Delta IV Heavy missile and the European Ariane 5 participated in the alignment of forces.

As soon as other missiles appeared on the space flight market, including Falcon 9, the situation changed and Roscosmos had to react to changed circumstances. The state corporation decided to reduce the cost of sending cargoes into orbit up to $ 65 million. The head of SpaceX earlier went even further and announced the forthcoming reduction in the prime cost of launching its rocket by almost an order of magnitude. The cost price will amount to no more than $ 10 million, but how much SpaceX will take for shipping cargo into space is a question. As for Roskosmos, the organization can not significantly reduce the price of launching Proton.

Now the "Protons" with their $ 65 million for launch obviously lose to foreign carrier rockets.

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One might think that the "Protons" are a significant source of money coming into the budget. But no, the customers of launches with the help of this carrier rocket are mainly the Ministry of Defense, which launches military satellites using the domestic missile, as well as the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communications", which is engaged in broadcasting in Russia.

As for the Angara, the new carrier has a number of significant problems. In particular, it is much more expensive than the "Proton", and even more so, more expensive Falcon 9 SpaceX. The problem is also that the release of new carrier rockets is not yet established.

Whatever it was, the "Protons" will be used for many more years. The schedule of launches of space vehicles using a Russian launch vehicle is hammered in the next 10 years. So do not be afraid that the domestic launch vehicle will soon become just an exhibit of the museum. No, the Protons are still flying. If, of course, they will be "chartered" by customers. Now the "Protons" fly several times a year, no more.