Colonising Space

The heads of the space agencies of 16 nations participating in the project watched the lift-off from a distance of about five km. Strategic rocket forces troops who had prepared the launch were in underground bunkers to avoid poisoning by the highly toxic rocket fuel.

The launch went smoothly, with the giant rocket soaring into the cloudy sky above the Central Asian steppes. The huge roar of the rocket reverberated for dozens of kilometers across the empty plain around the base.

The mood at the launchpad was tense before the launch, with space officials and workers anxiously making last-minute checks to ensure there were no problems.

Solar power panels on the module were successfully deployed shortly after it reached its first orbit and all systems appeared to be working normally, officials said.

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 12.4-metre (41.2-feet) Zarya

or Sunrise was launched by a three-stage proton booster rocket. 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 today for the liftoff of the 24-ton module. The rocket blasted off under cloudy skies and strong winds, and disappeared behind the clouds 40 seconds later.

The international space station, the US-led successor to Russia’s beleaguered Mir, involves 16 nations and is due to becompleted 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 was postponed repeatedly 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.

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,” saidAlexander 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 Dollars, with the United States planning to pay 24 billion Dollars. It will serve as an orbital home for visiting astronauts and cosmonauts for at least 15 years.

Russia has repeatedly 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 Dollars to complete the segment.

Agency chief Yuri Koptev said the new station is the only hope for the once-mighty Russian space industry, whose funding has disintegrated 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 sometime next year, although some officials have talked about trying to keep it aloftlonger.

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