I am going to cry the day this launcher has it's flight.

There is just something about #Proton utilitarian look that says "I am a rocket, rawr!"

Note that the 6 side "boosters" are actually tanks containing the fuel(UDMH). The N2O4oxidizer is stored in the single center tank.

The diameter of the center tank (4.15 m) & the choice of external tanks have are due to railway tunnels, which in remote russian areas have a maximum width of, you guessed it, 4.15 m.

Peculiar to #Proton is the dark brown smoke emitting from a single engine after launch.

This is unburnt nitrogen tetroxide.

I haven't found an official explanation, but think it's running one engine purposefully on a non-stoichiometric fuel-oxidizer ratio, thus throttling the thrust thus achieving a clunky form of thrust vectoring.

(What a sentence)