Progress with the International Space Station
The first component of the International Space Station is scheduled to be launched in Kazakhstan, on Friday 20 November, signifying a new era in the human exploration of space. The Space Station will provide a permanent workplace in orbit for men and women of many different nationalities. It will be assembled element by element over the next five years and, when completed in 2004, the complex will be the largest ever structure in space. The first element in orbit, the Russian-built, US-owned, control module named Zarya, will provide the initial propulsion and power for the future Space Station. Two weeks later, on 3 December 1998, the second element will be launched. Carried into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, the Unity module will be attached to Zarya to begin the Space Station's orbital assembly. The European Space Agency is one of five partners in this international endeavour, together with the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada. The ESA is contributing two major elements, the Columbus laboratory and an Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The first is a multi-purpose scientific and technological laboratory, to be added to the Space Station in the year 2002/2003, and the second is a transport vessel to be launched by Europe's Ariane 5 to carry supplies to the Space Station. Europe is also supplying scientific and technical equipment to NASA and the Russian Space Agency (RKA), and will take part in 19 of the 45 flights planned during the five-year assembly phase. The first European element, a data management system that will act as the "brain" of the Russian Service Module, will be launched on the fourth assembly flight early next summer.