Debra Rahn

Headquarters, Washington, DC

(Phone: 202/358-1638)

Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington, DC

(Phone: 202/358-1726)

Kyle Herring

Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

(Phone: 281/483-5111)

RELEASE: 00-25

Launch of the International Space Station’s next component —
the Zvezda service module — is scheduled to occur between July 8
and 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA and the
Russian Aviation and Space Agency announced today. The Zvezda
launch window will be proposed for approval to the International
Space Station Partners in accordance with the ISS Control Board
process within the next several weeks.

Following joint meetings in Moscow, including a General
Designer’s Review and a Joint Program Review, Rosaviakosmos has
proposed that Zvezda (Russian for “Star”) — the early living
quarters for crews aboard the station — be launched on a Proton
rocket with second and third stage engines modified to increase
reliability.

The 42,000 pound Zvezda not only provides the early living
quarters for astronauts and cosmonauts, but also the life support
system, electrical power distribution, data processing system,
flight control system, and propulsion. While many of these
systems will be supplemented or replaced by later U.S. station
components, Zvezda always will remain the structural and
functional center of the Russian segment of the International
Space Station.

Zvezda has a solar-array wingspan of 97.5 feet tip to tip,
and is 43 feet long from end to end. The module contains three
pressurized compartments and four docking ports.

Following Zvezda’s launch and about 15 days of free flight,
the ISS will rendezvous and dock with its newest module.

Launch of Zvezda sets the stage for the launch of other ISS
components undergoing final testing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
in Florida.

These components include a small truss segment that will
serve as the support structure for other station hardware; the
first set of solar arrays; the United States Destiny laboratory;
the Canadian-built space station robot arm; and several truss
segments that will serve as the station1s backbone for external
hardware, experiments and solar arrays. Other key station
components are also under development and testing in Europe and
Japan.

-end-