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The three-stage Russian Proton rocket that will be used to launch the first International Space Station component, the U.S.-owned, Russian-built Zarya control module, is a veteran design that has successfully flown more than 200 times. The Proton was originally introduced in 1965 as a booster for heavy military payloads and for space stations. It was designed by the Salyut Design Bureau and is manufactured by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow. The Proton is among the most reliable heavy-lift launch vehicles in operation, with a reliability rating of about 98 percent. In addition to Zarya, the three-stage Proton will be used to boost the primary Russian station contribution, an early living quarters known as the Service Module, into orbit in July 1999. |
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Proton First Stage With the Zarya module, launch fairing and adapter in place atop the booster, the Proton measures about 180 feet tall, 24 feet in diameter at its widest point and weighs about 1,540,000 pounds when fully fueled for launch. The engines use nitrogen tetroxide, an oxidizer, and unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine, a fuel, as propellants. The first stage includes six engines that are fed propellants from a single, center oxidizer tank surrounded by six outboard fuel tanks. At launch, the first stage engines combined provide about 1.9 million pounds of thrust. The first stage, which measures about 68 feet long by 24 feet in diameter, burns out and is jettisoned two minutes, six seconds after launch, when the spacecraft is at an altitude of 27 statute miles and traveling more than 3,700 miles per hour. |
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Second Stage The Proton's second stage, 56 feet long by 13.5 feet in diameter, is powered by four engines that can create 475,000 pounds of thrust. While the second stage is in operation, the protective fairing covering Zarya for liftoff is jettisoned at three minutes, three seconds into the flight. The second stage burns for a total of about three minutes, 28 seconds and is jettisoned at about five and half minutes after launch. When the second stage is jettisoned, the spacecraft is at an altitude of about 86 miles, traveling more than 9,900 miles per hour. |
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Third Stage The Proton's third and final stage, 13.5 feet long by 13 feet in diameter, is powered by a single engine that creates 125,000 pounds of thrust. The third stage is jettisoned nine minutes, forty-seven seconds into the flight, when the spacecraft is at an altitude of 115 statute miles and traveling about 16,900 miles per hour. Zarya will then be in an elliptical orbit with a high point of 220 statute miles and a low point of 115 statute miles. Firings of Zarya's engines during the following days will raise the orbit to a circular altitude of about 240 statute miles for the rendezvous and capture by the Space Shuttle Endeavour |
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