Proton Launch

[VF2_Rolf]

The mighty Proton medium lift booster. Safe...but too many Gs for a manned launcher. It literally throws things into orbit...

[Sleeper2.5]

looks evil

[Awesome]

It's a proton torpedo, it's supposed to be evil. :costumes:

Awesome

[VF2_Rolf]

Far from evil, the Proton is one of the most powerful non-military rockets in any country's inventory. Using hypergolic fuel technology, it allows ground crew to work more or less safely right around the rocket while fully fueled. Hypergolic fuels are inert until mixed...then they go 'boom'. This means no complex starter system like on the STS. One drawback is that the spent core stage comes down in a certain part of Siberia where the remaining (mixed) fuel has been known to poison the environment (very toxic) as well as cause massive forest fires. All part of the fun, I suppose.

http://www.spacetoday.org/images/Rockets/Russia/Proton300thLaunchRolloutILS.jpg
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/granat/protngrn.jpg
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/space_station/images/delay2.jpg