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Look back on the May 30 launch of a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with this gallery of photos showing the 19-story launcher climbing into the sky with the Yamal 601 communications satellite.

These images show the Proton rocket firing into the night sky from Baikonur atop some 2.5 million pounds of thrust from six RD-276 main engines.

Liftoff occurred at 1742 GMT (1:42 p.m. EDT; 10:42 p.m. Baikonur time) May 30 to begin the first Proton rocket flight of the year. More than nine hours later, the Proton’s Breeze M upper stage deployed the Yamal 601 communications satellite into an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit on the way to the spacecraft’s final operating location more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.

Built by Thales Alenia Space of France for Gazprom Space Systems, a subsidiary of Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom, the Yamal 601 satellite will provide television, data relay and broadband services over Russia and neighboring regions.

Read our full story for details on the mission.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.