A Russian Proton rocket on Thursday successfully orbited a US Еchostar-21 telecoms satellite after the launch from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, an official from Russia's Roscosmos state space corporation told Sputnik.

Axar.az reports quoting Sputnik.

This was the first launch of a Proton since June 2016 when a rocket suffered an engine glitch, prompting an audit that grounded the Proton launches for a year.

"The spacecraft has successfully separated from the upper stage [o the rocket], so the Russian part of the program for launching EchoStar-21 is complete, the satellite has been transferred to the management of the customer," the official said.