Proton-K TKS

8K82K UR-500K

Mission Profile

The Proton-K TKS was a Soviet three-stage heavy-lift vehicle configuration designed to launch the TKS crewed resupply spacecraft intended for the Almaz military space station program. Standing 55.4 m tall with a 7.4 m diameter and a liftoff mass of 705 tonnes, it generated 9,870 kN of thrust from its six first-stage RD-253 engines. Though the TKS spacecraft flew multiple unmanned missions in this configuration during the 1970s and early 1980s, the planned crewed operational missions were never completed as the Almaz program evolved toward automated logistics operations.