Zvezda (star in Russian) is the third module to join the International Space Station in orbit. It contains the living quarters for the permanent crew, as well as lifesupport and station control systems. It was launched from Baikonur Kosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:56:36 (05:56:36 in Experience2 server time) on 7/12/00 atop a Proton booster. 14 minutes and 20 seconds into the flight, confirmation was received that the Zvezda spacecraft had separated successfully from the Proton rocket, and had completed deploying its solar arrays as well as its telemetry and data antennae. At that point, Zvezda officially was a successful launch. Hooray!

This module will join the Unity and Zarya modules, which are already in orbit and have been awaiting it. Due to unexpected delays, the batteries and supplies in the Zarya module (the temporary station control module) were replaced by U.S. Space Shuttle.