Russian booster rocket Proton takes off from the launch pad at the Baikonur rocket base in Kazakstan, Friday, November 20, 1998. After months of delays, the first component of a multibillion dollar international space station took-off on Friday. The 24-ton Zarya control and cargo module, is designed to serve as a space tugboat in the early stages of the project providing propulsion, power and communications.It will be launched atop the booster rocket. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Segment of international space station in orbit

Web posted November 21, 1998

 International Space Station timetable

By Vladimir Isachenkov
Associated Press

BAIKONUR, Kazakstan -- A Russian Proton booster rocket lifted off from a launch-pad in Kazakstan on Friday, carrying the first part of the new international space station into orbit.

Russian space officials and others cheered as ground control announced that the capsule had separated from its booster rocket and reached its first orbit. ``Success!'' one exultant official shouted about 10 minutes after the giant rocket blasted off.

The heads of space agencies of 16 nations participating in the project watched the liftoff from about three miles away. Strategic Rocket Forces troops who had prepared the launch were in underground bunkers to avoid poisoning by the highly toxic rocket fuel.

The launch of the Russian cargo module, which had been delayed for more than a year, ushers in a new era of cooperation among former space race rivals.

The 41.2-foot Zarya was launched by a three-stage Proton booster rocket to put the module into orbit less than 10 minutes after blastoff. Zarya is designed to serve as a space tugboat in the early stages of the project, providing propulsion, power and communications.

Engineers finished final preparations early Friday for the liftoff of the 24-ton module. The rocket blasted off under cloudy skies and strong winds, and disappeared behind the clouds in 40 seconds.

The international space station, the U.S.-led successor to Russia's beleaguered Mir, involves 16 nations and is scheduled to be completed by 2004. It will consist of more than 100 elements that will take 45 assembly flights to complete.

Russia's crucial participation has been hampered by the country's financial problems. The launch of the first segment, the cargo and control module Zarya, which means Sunrise, was repeatedly postponed mainly because the chronically broke Russian space agency couldn't afford to complete another part of the station that is to go up later.

The space station will not be inhabitable until at least early 2000, following the launch of a Russian crew module which is set to blast off next July or August.

``We are ready to begin a project that will bring us into the millennium with women and men living and working in space permanently,'' Gretchen McClain, deputy associate administrator for the new station, said at a news conference earlier this week.

``After years of discussing, planning and replanning, we are about to launch hardware.''

Russian officials were more cautious.

``It is not in the Russian tradition to preface a launch with ... advance statements. I would like to knock on wood, which is rather common in the Russian tradition,'' said Alexander Krasnov, a deputy chief of the Russian Space Agency's manned flight department, before the launch.

The space station is expected to cost at least $40 billion, with the United States planning to pay $24 billion. It will serve as an orbital home for visiting astronauts and cosmonauts for at least 15 years.

Russia repeatedly has failed to meet deadlines for constructing the crew module, putting the whole project behind schedule. Having lost hope of getting promised government funds, the Russian space agency has sold research time on the station to NASA for $60 million to complete the segment.

Agency chief Yuri Koptev said the new station is the only hope for the once-mighty Russian space industry that has seen its funding disintegrate since the Soviet collapse. The project would allow Russia to keep up to 80,000 jobs over the next 15 years.

Russia is expected to retire the Mir next year, although some officials have talked about trying to keep it aloft longer.

Zarya is to fly alone for two weeks before a rendezvous with the American space shuttle Endeavor, which is to be launched Dec. 3 carrying the Unity connecting module.

Russia rents the Baikonur launching pad from Kazakstan.

Russia launched the first module of the International Space Station, a propulsion unit, on Friday. Other components will be sent up on dozens of trips over the next several years, but the timeline is likely to change because of Russia's financial turmoil.

International space station timetable

Representatives from the 16 nations taking part are scheduled to meet early next month to settle on yet another assembly schedule. Among the next major stages planned:

--1998 to mid-1999: The first U.S.-built component, Unity, or Node-1, will be launched on Dec. 3 on the space shuttle Endeavour. The Russian Service Module, the first Russian-built and Russian-financed component is to be launched in July or August.

--Early 2000: Tentative arrival date of the first three-man crew, two Russians and an American captain.

--Mid-2000: The U.S. laboratory module will be in place. A portion of the Canadian mechanical arm is to arrive.

--Late 2001 to 2002: The Japanese laboratory module to be launched.

--2003: European laboratory module to be launched.

--2004: The International Space Station set to be completed.