Russia’s Proton Returns to Flight after Year-Long Grounding, sends EchoStar-21 to Orbit

Russia’s Proton-M rocket soared into the skies over the remote Baikonur Cosmodrome again on Thursday, ending a year-long grounding with the launch of the EchoStar-21 mobile communications satellites – one of the vehicle’s heaviest Geotransfer payloads to date.