Mark in Record on Russian Space Agency Celebrating 15 Years

In 1998, was a day to mark in history. The Russian Space Agency, now known as Roscosmos, launch a Proton sky rocket that lifted the under pressure module called Zarya, or “sunrise,” into orbit to this launch would really be alive to the dawn of the largest international teamwork effort in space to ever come to light.

The Zarya was the first piece of the International Space Station to furthermore known as the Functional Cargo Block (FGB), it would provide a nucleus of orientation control, relations and electrical power while the station waited for its other elements, as well as the Zvezda service module and Unity.

We were in the manage center in Houston that night to watch Zarya launch, along with a good quality number of people from the program, said Bill Bastedo, who is at this time senior vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton at the time, Bastedo had the technically demanding task of launch pack up manager for Unity, also known as Node 1. “It was truly, for us, exciting to have Zarya on orbit so we can get our chance to effect our mission.”

Unique 'Portrait' Of Shuttle and International Space Station Released

Newly-released portraits show the International Space Station together with the space shuttle, the vehicle that helped build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

On May 23, the Soyuz was carrying Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli back to Earth. Once their vehicle was about 600 feet from the station, Mission Control Moscow, outside the Russian capital, commanded the orbiting laboratory to rotate 130 degrees. This move allowed Nespoli to capture digital photographs and high definition video of shuttle Endeavour docked to the station.

The Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan and was taken to Moscow for routine post-landing analysis. NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, then processed the imagery as part of the standard disposition of spacecraft cargo.