Any launch vehicle that flies as often as Russia's Proton is bound to have its share of mishaps. The venerable heavy-lifter has flown 388 missions since its first in 1965, 45 of which have been deemed total or partial failures. But the Proton M/Block DM-03 that veered off course and destroyed three Russian Glonass M navigation satellites in a fiery explosion near its Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad July 2 comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for Russia's space program, which has suffered a spate of launch vehicle failures in recent years, including five in the past 30 months. Russia's apparent nosedive in the quality of its space efforts has so far not affected launch vehicles serving the International Space Station (ISS). However, Proton quality control could have implications for Reston, Va.-based International Launch Services (ILS), which annually launches half of the world's largest commercial telecommunications satellites atop Proton.
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机译：任何与俄罗斯的质子一样频繁飞行的运载工具注定会遇到不幸。自1965年首次发射起，这架古老的重型起重机就执行了388次飞行任务，其中45次被认为是全部或部分故障。但是，7月2日在拜科努尔宇宙飞船发射场附近发生爆炸的Proton M / Block DM-03航道偏离轨道并摧毁了三架俄罗斯Glonass M导航卫星，这对俄罗斯的太空计划来说是特别脆弱的时刻，该计划遭受了一系列近年来运载火箭故障，包括过去30个月中的5起。到目前为止，俄罗斯在太空工作质量上的明显降落并未影响为国际空间站（ISS）服务的运载火箭。但是，质子质量控制可能会对总部位于弗吉尼亚州雷斯顿的国际发射服务公司（ILS）产生影响，该公司每年在质子上面发射世界上最大的一半商业电信卫星。
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