WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- Congressional NASA-watchers gave a cautious thumbs-up Wednesday to the successful launch of the Russian-made Zvezda service module to the International Space Station (ISS).

The launch of the module -- which will become a living quarters on the ISS -- came as a relief to some lawmakers, who have wrestled with NASA over possible contingency plans if the Russian mission fell through.

Watch the video of the launch of the Zvezda Service Module.

"I have been waiting for this moment for about three years," Rep. David Weldon (R-Florida) told SPACE.com.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), a habitual critic of NASA, took a sardonic tone as he referred to a Pizza Hut logo the company paid to place on the Proton rocket that pushed the module into space at 12:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (04:56 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"The pizza is up in the air," said Rohrabacher, who chairs the House Science Committee's Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee.

The module now has two weeks of orbital testing before its crucial docking at the international station on July 25.

House Science Committee Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), a fierce critic of the station's ballooning budget, also hailed the launch in a statement.

Congressional critics who have lambasted NASA for relying on the Russian space program for completion of the ISS still harbor doubts about Moscow's ability to deliver crucial Soyuz spacecraft and Progress cargo ships to the station. The vehicles are the next two components that Russia must provide and are crucial to the ISS.

Rep. James Walsh (R-New York), who heads the House VA-HUD appropriations subcommittee handling NASA's budget, is keeping close watch over Russia, an aide said. He plans to travel to Moscow in August to tour the factories producing the two types of vehicles.

Weldon, whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said while there is "tremendous opportunity" for improving the NASA partnership with Russia, it depends on Russia's financial and political situation. "We're not exactly out of the woods here, but I'd say there's light at the end of the tunnel."

The International Space Station is a collaborative project that involves partnerships with space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan, Europe and elsewhere.

"The Russians have proven that they've got some areas in which they really excel when it comes to space," Rohrabacher said. "I think that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is offering some real hope."