Successful Proton Launch

After a stumble last summer, a Russian Proton rocket successfully launched three Russian communications satellites last week.

The satellites are part of the Russian equivalent of the U. S. GPS system. The Russian network was allowed to degrade during the 1990s due to financial problems in Moscow. Now, Russia is rebuilding the 24-satellite constellation.

The Proton suffered a launch failure last summer, which raised some concerns about flying NASA astronauts aboard the Soyuz, which is launched atop a Proton derivative. Russia conducted a quick investigation, however, and successful launches since have probably rebuilt some confidence.