Natural Sound XFA The Russian Proton-K rocket that is carrying the long-delayed International Space Station's service module into orbit lifted off Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome. At Mission Control outside Moscow, Russian and U.S. space agency officials anxiously monitored a live feed from the cosmodrome broadcast on their console video screens. A huge screen in front of them displayed the countdown at the cosmodrome on the remote, windswept steppes of Kazakstan. Technicians pulled back the launch tower from the huge rocket about half an hour before the 8:56 a.m. liftoff. A large logo advertising Pizza Hut had been placed about halfway up the rocket. Russia and the United States have invested high hopes in the Zvezda module, which will be the core of the 16-nation space station project. The module will contain flight controls, the sewage system and sleeping quarters for the crew. Russia says that the 22-ton, 43-foot-long segment cost about $320 million to build. It has severely taxed Moscow's meagre financial resources and thrown the U.S.-led space station project more than two years behind schedule, casting doubts on Russia's reliability as a major partner. The launch could have come sooner if not for two crashes of Proton rockets. Russia insisted problems with the rocket have been worked out, and it has put several satellites into orbit with the help of Proton rockets since the crashes. The Zvezda module will go into orbit unmanned, docking July 26 by computer with two other space station componen hat were launched in 1998. The first crew could go to the station by October, NASA has said. Two cosmonauts will be prepared to immediately launch to Zvezda aboard a Soyuz rocket if the automatic linkup goes wrong. A failed launch would have been a major setback for the project and Russia's attempts to retain its image as a leading space power, which it gained by putting the first satellite and the first man into space. Delays on the Zvezda - which means «star» in Russian - have already cost the project an estimated $3 billion, and some members of the U.S. Congress are questioning whether to fund NASA's spending projections on the $60 billion project, particularly after the failed launches of two Mars missions last year. The United States has also been irritated by a Russian decision to keep the 14-year old Mir space station aloft. A pair of cosmonauts returned in June from a successful two-month stint on the station, whose resiliency after hundreds of breakdowns and accidents gives Russian space officials considerable pride. The U.S. General Accounting office has accused Russia of failing to meet NASA safety standards in building Zvezda, saying the module's magnesium and aluminium skin may not adequately protect against collisions with space junk and that equipment will fail if cabin pressure is lost. Russia insists that Zvezda is reliable and that the ISS is a priority, and President Vladimir Putin has promised that the country will meet its commitments. The Zvezda launch costs were partly defrayed by U.S. pizza chain Pizza Hut, which put a giant advertisement on the side of the Proton rocket. The ad was not visible Tuesday, with the rocket mostly covered by scaffolding from the launch tower. The station is still nowhere near complete. Dozens more modules have to be built, and the station is expected to be finished by 2005 at the earliest, with 46 more planned space launches. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/2237d300e4cf3c2489813f8cdefb890f Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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