Zarya
September 1998:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
agreed to provide Russia with $660 million for various
goods and services to help its under-funded space program
fulfill its commitments to help build the new International
Space Station. This project brings together Russia, the
United States, Europe, Japan and Canada in a $60 billion
effort to assemble the most high-tech spaceship ever built.
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, November 20, 1998:
Russia ushered in a new era in space exploration on Friday by
launching the first module of the $60 billion International
Space Station. A Russian Proton rocket blasted off from
Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of
Kazakhstan at 0640 GMT carrying the Russian-built,
U.S.-financed Zarya navigation and communications
module to its orbit.
About the Station
The new international station was first embraced by U.S.
President Ronald Reagan, who in 1984 set the goal of building
what was later named "Space Station Freedom." Several foreign
partners joined the planning over the following years. In
1993 President Bill Clinton broadened the plan, incorporating
design elements from a planned Russian Mir 2 station and
bringing Moscow aboard as full partners. Under the plan, the
United States will build about half the station, Russia a
little less than a third and Europe, Canada and Japan the
rest. The new U.S.-Russian partnership at the core of the
new station intensified in 1995 when American astronauts
started long-duration missions on Mir.
The U.S.-funded Zarya module is the first of several dozen
which will be joined to form the station over several years.
It will provide power and communications facilities for the
new space station, which will receive its first occupants
in January 2000 --a year and a half behind schedule due to
delays in Russia's work on the living quarters. This has
allowed engineers to make improvements to the Zarya module.
The second module, the U.S.-made Node-1, dubbed "Unity,"
will be attached to Zarya in December; the Russian-built
living quarters, or service module, will be sent up in
July, 1999.
The station will house seven astronauts once completed, with
an interior equal to the inside of two 747 jets. The new
station is to be built over at least 44 flights through the
year 2004, and beyond if necessary.
U.S. and Russian Astronauts to Train