Zarya

Zarya

Zarya module as seen from STS-88 (NASA)
Station statistics
NSSDC ID:	1998-067A
Launch date:	20 November 1998
Launch vehicle:	Proton-K
Mass:	19,323 kilograms (42,600 lb)
Length:	12.56 metres (41.2 ft)
Diameter:	4.11 metres (13.5 ft)

Zarya (Russian: Заря́; lit. Red Sky Glow, Aurora, Sunrise), also known as the Functional Cargo Block or FGB (from the Russian "Функционально-грузовой блок", Funktsionalno-gruzovoy blok or ФГБ), was the first module of the International Space Station to be launched. The FGB provided electrical power, storage, propulsion, and guidance to the ISS during the initial stage of assembly. With the launch and assembly in orbit of other modules with more specialized functionality, Zarya is now primarily used for storage, both inside the pressurized section and in the externally mounted fuel tanks. The Zarya is a descendant of the TKS spacecraft designed for the Russian Salyut program. The name Zarya, which means sunrise, was given to the FGB because it signified the dawn of a new era of international cooperation in space. Although it was built by a Russian company, it is owned by the United States.

The FGB design was originally intended as a module for the Russian Mir space station, but was not flown as of the end of the Mir program. A FGB cargo block was incorporated as an upper stage engine into the Polyus spacecraft, flown (unsuccessfully) on the first Energia launch. With the end of the Mir program, the design was adapted to use for the International Space Station.

The Zarya module is capable of station keeping and provides sizable battery power; it was suggested to have initially been built to both power and control the recoil from a further derivation of the then classified Skif laser system/Polyus satellite. Commentators in the West thought that the Zarya module was constructed cheaper and lifted to orbit faster than what should have been possible in the post-Soviet era, and that the FGB might had been largely constructed from hardware from the Skif laser program (which had been canceled after the failed 1987 Polyus launch).