MOSCOW, November 4 (AVN) -- Russia has completed electric tests of the Zvezda service module, the main element of the International Space Station, Sergei Gromov, deputy general constructor of the Energia missile and space corporation, said on Thursday.
Zvezda is already delivered to the Baykonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Gromov told the Military News Agency. However Russia still has to build a booster rocket to put it into orbit. The crash of the Proton rocket on October 27, the second in four months, proved once again that serious modification of its second stage engines is necessary, he added.
The new Proton will be ready by February 2000, Gromov said. The launch of the Zvezda module is also scheduled for February, so the Proton crash will not affect construction of the International Space Station, he stressed.