Key module heads for rendezvous with space station

The Proton lifts off Wednesday in Baikonur

BAIKONUR, Kazakhastan (CNN) -- The long-awaited housing quarters of the International Space Station reached orbit Wednesday and began a two-week cruise toward a docking with earlier segments of the $60 billion outpost.

Hundreds of spectators from dozens of Russian and Western aerospace companies cheered as the Proton rocket carrying the service module, named Zvezda, or "Star," surged into a blue sky amid a cloud of smoke and flame. A deafening roar echoed over the barren steppe of Kazakhstan.

VIDEO Watch the launch QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien explains what the launch means for the International Space Station QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     INTERACTIVE A 360° stroll through the International Space Station Cult 3-D model of the International Space Station     MESSAGE BOARD Will the Zvezda module prove reliable?     ALSO City in Space

Both Russia and the United States have a lot riding on the success of Zvezda. As well as containing flight controls and the sewage system, the Zvezda will be a hub for future modules and is where the crew will sleep.

The 22-ton, 43-foot-long segment, which Russia says cost about $320 million to build, has taxed Russia's dwindling resources and put the U.S.-led project more than two years behind schedule, casting doubts on Russia's reliability as a major partner.

While Russia will still build and deliver parts of the 16-nation project, delays due to financial troubles in Russia can no longer set back work the way the Zvezda delay did, officials say.

"We really couldn't continue construction of the station without this piece," said Robert Castle, Jr., NASA's flight director for shuttle and station mission operations. "This particular part is very important because it allows us to put a crew on the station, a permanent crew."

Docking ports for future U.S.-built modules are already in place, so any Russian delays will only hold up their part of the station.

A key mission is scheduled for September, when a shuttle will bring the first piece of the girder-like truss assembly that will hold giant solar panels.

The unmanned Zvezda is scheduled to dock automatically with the space station -- orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 240 miles (384 km) -- on July 25. The first crew could begin living on the station by October, NASA has said.

The Proton rocket awaits launch in Baikonur

The Zvezda launch costs were partly defrayed by U.S. pizza chain Pizza Hut, which put a giant advertisement on the side of the Proton rocket. The ad was not visible Tuesday, with the rocket mostly covered by scaffolding from the launch tower in Baikonur.

If Zvezda fails to dock successfully with the existing infrastructure, a two-man team known as the "zero crew" is on standby in Baikonur to race into space and make the connection manually, Kuznetsov said.

The space station partners -- which include the European nations, Japan and Canada in addition to the U.S. and Russia -- are hoping it will be the start of a 15-year continuous multinational manned presence on the orbiting outpost.

Strapped for cash, the Russians have had a hard time completing the complicated module. During the past six months, Russian Space Agency officials admit they spotted -- and they say rectified -- no less than 368 malfunctions in the service module. In addition, they say they made 70 design improvements based on input from astronauts and cosmonauts.

But Zvezda will still be launched with some serious flaws that will require repair in space. NASA engineers say, among other things, the service module does not meet their specifications for noise abatement and micrometeroid shielding.

The Zvezda module

The early crews will simply be provided earplugs and headsets while engineers ponder some muffler designs. And shielding against wayward space junk and meteor fragments will be installed by spacewalking astronauts a few years from now.

The station is still nowhere near complete. Dozens more modules have to be built, and the station is expected to be finished by 2005 at the earliest, with 46 more planned space launches.

Despite the hectic, complicated, expensive schedule that lies before them, Russian space agency officials say they are sticking with plans to keep Mir in orbit as long as they have investors and at least until February 2001, when the station marks its 15th anniversary in orbit.

CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mission accomplished: Shuttle crew rests after departing repaired space station
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