Zvezda Launch
Zvezda Service Module and the Path to Permanent Crews
Zvezda launched from Baikonur on July 12, 2000, and docked with the ISS on July 26, adding living quarters, propulsion, communications, environmental systems, and station-control capability.
Mission type
Uncrewed station-module launch
Launch
July 12, 2000
Mission end / docking
July 26, 2000 — autonomous docking with the ISS
Launch vehicle / spacecraft
Proton-K
Objective
What this ISS mission set out to accomplish
Deliver the Russian Service Module needed to expand life-support, living, communications, guidance, and propulsion capabilities before the first long-duration ISS crew arrived.
This record treats Zvezda Launch as an assembly or station-support mission rather than as a satellite engineering page, keeping the mission objective separate from the hardware-level ISS engineering record.
Flight and rendezvous
How the mission reached and worked at the station
Zvezda Launch launched on July 12, 2000 using Proton-K from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Zvezda launched uncrewed on a Proton rocket and completed a multi-day orbital rendezvous. Its automated approach and docking joined the module to the aft end of Zarya without a Space Shuttle present.
Hardware and assembly
What was delivered, installed, or reconfigured
Primary hardware or assembly focus: Zvezda Service Module.
Installation record: Docked to Zarya on July 26, 2000. This is the engineering connection between the mission story and the interactive International Space Station breakdown.
Outcome
What changed on the International Space Station
The successful docking of Zvezda gave the early ISS essential habitation and station-support systems and prepared the complex for Expedition 1 later in 2000.
The documented result makes Zvezda Launch part of the larger ISS assembly chain, where individual missions progressively added structure, power, laboratories, robotics, thermal control, logistics, and crew-support systems.
Continue exploring
Follow the connected story
Open the International Space Station engineering page
See the station modules, truss systems, solar arrays, robotics, and launch/install history in the interactive engineering experience.
Browse launch records
Compare this mission with other launches and ISS assembly flights.
Browse mission records
Explore other TransitSatellite mission stories.
Sources