a government decision. In the 1960s, Khrunichev and OKB-23 were subordinated to Vladimir Chelomey's OKB-52 (later renamed to TsKBM, today NPO Mashinostroyeniya). Under the OKB-52 leadership, OKB-23 started to design intercontinental ballistic missiles. Its first designs were the UR-200, which never flew, followed by the successful UR-100 family of missiles. In 1962, the design process of the UR-500 super-heavy ICBM was started. This later evolved into the Proton space launch vehicle in 1964. The first Proton rocket was launched on 16 July 1965. In 1966 OKB-52 was renamed the Central Design Bureau of Machine-Building (TsKBM), and OKB-23 became known as the Fili Branch of TsKBM. It was split off from TsKBM in the late 1970s, and renamed the Salyut Design Bureau, or KB Salyut for short. In 1981–1988, KB Salyut was part of the large NPO Energiya company, and become an independent design bureau in 1988. The partnership with Khrunichev Machine-Building plant continued through all this time. KB Salyut and Khrunichev were responsible for designing and producing all Soviet space stations, including Salyut, Almaz and Mir, as well as every heavy-weight module used for these stations. Post-1991 adjustments The dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in great difficulties for the Russian space industry. Over the years 1989–1999, the country's space budget dropped by 88% and established production cooperation chains disintegrated. Both Khrunichev and the Salyut Design Bureau, which were now separate companies, attempted to remedy the situation by seeking earning possibilities abroad. Salyut managed to win a contract for producing the 12KRB booster for the Indian GSLV rocket and entered an agreement with Daimler Benz Aerospace to develop a recoverable capsule used for experiments in the German-Japanese Express project. At this time, the Proton launch vehicle proved as the most profitable product for both companies. The Khrunichev plant signed a $156 million contract to launch 21 Iridium satellites on three Proton-K rockets in 1997–1998. Salyut managed to sign only one contract for launching the Inmarsat-3 F satellite with Proton-K at the low price of $36 million. Both companies attempted to enter partnerships with foreign companies to market Proton launches. The situation where two companies, the design bureau and the factory, competed with each other to sell the same product proved problematic. To solve this, on 7 June 1993, President of Russia Boris Yeltsin issued a decree to merge Khrunichev and Salyut, forming the company Khrunichev State Research and Production Space