November 20, 1998

Zarya

Proton-K launches Zarya, the first International Space Station element

The International Space Station began not as a crewed laboratory but as one unoccupied, 41-foot module flying alone — built by Russia, paid for by the United States.

20 November 1998: nine minutes to orbit

On 20 November 1998, a three-stage Russian Proton-K lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying Zarya, the first component of the International Space Station. Roughly nine minutes later the module was in low Earth orbit — 220.4 by 339.6 kilometers — deploying its antennas and two solar arrays.

With that, the ISS existed: a single functioning module, 41.2 feet long and 13.5 feet across, massing 42,600 pounds (about 19.3 metric tonnes — the often-quoted '21 tons' is a rounding).

A station of one

Zarya was designed to run the embryonic station alone, supplying propulsion, electrical power, communications and orientation control while later modules waited on the ground. Its design descended from Soviet Almaz/TKS-derived orbital modules tested with the Salyut stations.

The funding arrangement defies simple flags: Zarya was Russian-built and Russian-launched, but U.S.-funded through a Boeing subcontract — neither an entirely Russian nor entirely American contribution.

Sixteen days alone

Zarya flew solo for 16 days. Endeavour launched with the Unity node on 4 December; on 6 December, astronaut Nancy Currie used the shuttle's robotic arm to capture Zarya and mate it with Unity, forming the station's first two-module configuration.

The rest came in stages: Zvezda docked in July 2000 and took over many control functions, Zarya settled into a storage and propellant-support role, and continuous human occupation began with Expedition 1 in November 2000.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 3 audit passes

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