zvezda_nasas_turn_000726 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Now the pressure is on NASA.
Russias Zvezda service module at long last is firmly fixed to the
International Space Station, clearing the way for the resumption of a $60 billion construction project that has been at a standstill now for 20 months.Traffic to and from the nascent station finally is supposed to pick up as construction crews piece together a half million pounds of hardware or 85 percent of the U.S. side of the station in the next 14 months.
Zvezda docked with the station at 8:44 p.m. EDT, July 25 (0:44 GMT, July 26).
And by October 2001, the international outpost is supposed to be so big about the size of an average three-bedroom American house that only the moon, Venus and Jupiter will outshine it in the night sky.
"Clearly, I think the torch has been passed from Russia back to the U.S. and the rest of our international partners to carry the load now," said veteran U.S. astronaut William Shepherd, who will serve as commander of the stations first full-time resident crew.
"The heat is on us to keep the schedule going and [keep] building the station."
A
joint effort of the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan, Canada and Brazil, the station construction project has been on hold awaiting the arrival of the Zvezda module ever since the first two building blocks of the outpost were launched and linked in late 1998.NASA and its other international partners, however, were placed squarely back in the critical path of station construction the moment the Russian command post hooked up with the new global outpost.
The
highly successful docking came at 8:44 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Tuesday (Wednesday, 0:44 GMT) as the existing seven-story station and Zvezda flew in formation over central Asia.Seriously behind schedule due to Russian economic and rocket problems, the high-flying hook-up was an emotional event at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, a space town on the outskirts of Moscow.
A burst of applause rose from the floor there as latches between the station and Zvezda snapped shut, firmly linking the craft. High-ranking Russian space program officials, meanwhile, hailed the docking as "a great achievement" and "a great event."
"We can definitely say now that the complex will live on and now were absolutely, definitely positive about it," said Anatoly Kisalev, general designer with Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, the Russian aerospace giant that built Zvezda.
"Now we have come to a point where we can start manned missions."
A small space station unto itself, the new wing of the international outpost will double as a command post and living quarters for construction crews while forming the foundation upon which to build the rest of the outpost.
Said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring: "The gates are now open for continued construction of the International Space Station."
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Next up: The planned August 6 launch of a Russian Progress space freighter, which will ferry food, equipment and supplies up to the outpost for its first resident crew.
That crew which also includes Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev are now scheduled to arrive at the station in early November.
"Our job is going to be to set it up and really do the outfitting. You might call it a shakedown cruise," said crew commander Shepherd, a former U.S. Navy SEAL. "I think thats the main job for the first expedition making sure everything we put on board is functional and working the way that we want it to work."
But before that happens, NASA first must launch:
- A September 8 mission aboard shuttle Atlantis. The job at hand: Unloading the Progress freighter and carrying out a spacewalk to electrically connect Zvezda with the rest of the station.
- An October 5 flight aboard shuttle Discovery. The metal framework for power-producing U.S. solar arrays will be raised at the station during that flight.
Still to come after that: 37 more U.S. shuttle flights and seven Russian rocket missions that will be needed to launch nearly 100 more major station components.
Construction now is expected to continue through mid 2006. And those involved with the project expect to encounter more problems along the way.
"I would expect that in this whole complicated process there might be additional delays and unforeseen circumstances," said veteran NASA astronaut Ellen Baker.
The Zvezda docking, however, provided an impressive new start for the long-stalled project, which involves 100,000 workers from 16 nations on four different continents.
"This is the beginning of a new era in space with the world participating in this project," said NASA station flight director Robert Castle. "This is an outstanding achievement something weve been waiting for a long time."
-- Moscow Contributing Correspondent Yuri Karash contributed to this story.
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