"It is important to us this rocket works flawlessly."
A sibling of the
Mir space station's core module, Zvezda will serve as living quarters, as well as provide propulsion and refueling capabilities for the fledgling outpost that, when completed, will be the product of a 16-nation cooperative effort.
An artist's representation of the International Space Station at 'sunrise.'
Although Russia built and launched the original element of the ISS -- the Zarya control module, Zvezda is the first element of the multi-modular station financed entirely by Russia.
The country's financial problems, on top of Proton rocket failures last year, pushed the Zvezda launch almost two years behind schedule, leading some to question Russia's involvement in the ISS program.
Meeting packed with officials
To review the module's readiness for launch, several hundred high-ranking officials gathered on Monday in Korolev, home of RKK Energia, a leading Russian participant in the ISS program.
The group, known in Russia as the Council of Chief Designers, originated at the dawn of space era as an informal body of the Soviet rocket-industry leaders.
This Monday a delegation of NASA officials led by Tommy Halloway, the ISS Director at Johnson Space Center in Houston, also attended the meeting known by NASA as the General Designer Review (GDR).
The next important milestone for the Zvezda launch is set to take place on Thursday, when the status of the ISS program will be reviewed in Houston at the Stage Operations Readiness Review.
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Tough schedule
Although the meeting in Korolev formally cleared Zvezda for launch, launch teams in Baikonur will have to meet very tough deadlines to roll out the module on time.
Processing the Zvezda service module
Two Proton rockets with commercial and military spacecraft are scheduled to lift off in the two weeks prior to the Zvezda launch.
On June 30 or July 1, a
Sirius 1 satellite is slated to take off from launch pad 23 in Area 200 in Baikonur.
More importantly for the Zvezda schedule, on July 5, another Proton will re-test modified engines on its second and third stage, the type to be used on the rocket set to carry Zvezda.
The development of the modified engines, while planned for years, was hastily completed in the wake of two launch failures last year.
The work on the modified engines has been the main issue that has kept Zvezda on the ground for the last six months.
An important success
A first rocket equipped with modified engines
flew flawlessly on June 6. Yet, guidelines established by Russian Aviation and Space Agency required that at least two rockets fly successfully before Zvezda could go up.
The Russian Ministry of Defense purchased the second Proton with modified engines to deploy its Geyzer communications spacecraft. However, problems with the payload pushed back the launch date to the end of June. Now, the rocket has to wait until pad 39 is readied after hosting a previous launch on June 24.
A Proton with modified engines is set to launch the Zvezda service module on July 12.
As a result, the mission managers currently plan to ship the Zvezda service module to a fueling station at Baikonur on July 2 and 3 and conduct all the preliminary procedures short of the fueling itself.
There is a reason for this: once toxic propellants are loaded into the spacecraft's tanks, its storage on the ground becomes extremely difficult. Instead, officials will wait until the modified Proton blasts off on June 5 and a preliminary analysis confirms its nominal performance.
"It is important to us this rocket works flawlessly," said Yuri Grigoriev, the deputy designer general at RKK Energia.
Nikolai Zelenshikov, the first deputy designer general at RKK Energia, who led the Zvezda development, leaves for Baikonur on Tuesday to supervise the spacecraft's final checkup.
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