Photos: Proton rocket soars from Baikonur

Russia’s Proton rocket returned to flight Friday, blasting off for the first time since a May launch mishap. Relive Friday’s launch with a video replay and photos of the daytime liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The Proton rocket launched at 1144 GMT (7:44 a.m. EDT) from the Kazakh space base and released the third communications satellite for Inmarsat’s Global Xpress broadband network into a high-altitude orbit more than 15 hours later.

The flight marked the 405th Proton launch since 1965.

Photo credit: Khrunichev
Photo credit: Khrunichev
Photo credit: Khrunichev
Photo credit: Khrunichev
Photo credit: Roscosmos
Photo credit: Roscosmos
Photo credit: Roscosmos
Photo credit: Roscosmos
Photo credit: Roscosmos
Photo credit: Roscosmos
Photo credit: Roscosmos
Photo credit: Roscosmos

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