Proton-K

The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton. It was built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The maiden flight on 10 March 1967 carried a Soyuz 7K-L1 as part of the Zond program. During the so-called "Moon Race" these Proton/Soyuz/Zond flights consisted of several uncrewed test flights of Soyuz spacecraft to highly elliptical or circumlunar orbits with the unrealized aim of landing Soviet cosmonauts on the Moon.

It was retired from service in favour of the modernised Proton-M, making its 311th and final launch on 30 March 2012.

Vehicle description

The baseline Proton-K was a three-stage rocket. Thirty were launched in this configuration, with payloads including all of the Soviet Union's Salyut space stations, all Mir modules with the exception of the Docking Module, which was launched on the US Space Shuttle, and the Zarya and Zvezda modules of the International Space Station. It was intended to launch Chelomey's manned TKS spacecraft, and succeeded in launching four unmanned tests flights prior to the programme's cancellation. It was also intended for Chelomey's 20-ton LKS spaceplane that was never realised.

Proton200k

The Proton200k is a high-speed, space-qualified, radiation-hardened single-board computer based on a Texas Instruments DSP. The Proton200k is produced by Space Micro Inc, a designer and manufacturer of radiation hardened electronics for space applications. The Proton200k was originally developed under Phase I and Phase II SBIR contracts. The Proton200k displays processing speeds of 900 MFLOPS or 4000 MIPS while operating at 5 watts. It is radiation hardened to a total ionizing dose greater than 100 krad(Si) and fewer than 1 single event upset per 1000 days.Space Micro Inc also offers a triple-core version of the Proton200k.

In 2006, the Proton200k space computer was selected for Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Autonomous Nanosatellite Guardian Evaluating Local Space (ANGELS) satellite program.

Enabling technologies originally developed for the Proton200k led to the development of Space Micro's Proton400k PowerPC-based single-board computer.

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