Summary:
Zarya, the first module of the International Space Station, was launched by a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Friday, November 20th, beginning the assembly of the most complex space project ever. Zarya was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch proceeded smoothly.
The launch is the first of dozens of American and Russian missions to assemble the International Space Station, which will not be completed until 2004. The Zarya control module, previously known as the Functional Cargo Block or FGB, will provide the initial power and propulsion to the station until the Service Module arrives. It will later be used primarily for storage.
Russian officials had requested earlier in November that the launch of Zarya be delayed by 10 hours so it could be launched into the same orbital plane as the Mir space station. Russians claimed the move would make it easier to transfer equipment from Mir to ISS before the satellite Mir is deorbited.
This launch will be followed December 3 by the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-88. The shuttle will carry the Unity docking node, and astronauts will attach Unity to Zarya during a series of spacewalks during the mission.
While the station will not be completed for several years, it will be inhabitable as early as late 1999 or early 2000, after the Service Module is attached to the station in mid-1999.
Timeline:
10-5-98 NASA will pay the Russian Space Agency $60 million for Russia's share of the research time scheduled for the assembly phase of the ISS
10-7-98Dan Goldin, NASA administrator, defends a plan to financially support the Russian Space Agency
11-6-1998 Russia asks NASA to move the planned orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) into one that matches the existing orbit of Mir
11-11-1998 Russia withdraws a request to alter the orbit of the International Space Station so that it would lie in the same plane as the existing Mir space station
11-20-98 Zarya is launched from Baikonur, Kazakhsta
12-3-98 Endeavour is launched on mission STS-88
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