Launch of Zarya, first module of the International Space Station

On 20 November 1998 a Russian Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, carrying Zarya, the first component of the International Space Station. With its arrival in orbit began the step-by-step assembly of the future station, a task that would continue for a decade.

Zarya, a name that in Russian means "dawn", was a cargo module that supplied power through batteries and fuel storage, and that gave the assembly rendezvous and docking capability for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.

The construction that began with Zarya required more than 30 missions. Starting from a modest pair of modules, one American and one Russian, the station kept growing until it formed a 460-tonne platform with dimensions similar to those of an American football field. When marking the twentieth anniversary of the launch, the ISS National Laboratory described that step as the beginning of the world's most spectacular scientific and engineering endeavor.