WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Krunichev State Research and Production Space Center (KhSC), Moscow, September 1997 - Russian technicians work on the almost completed forward portion of the U.S.-funded and Russian-built Functional Cargo Block (Russian acronym FGB), the first element of the International Space Station planned to be launched in June 1998 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazahkstan. Built at Khrunichev, the FGB began pre-launch testing shortly after this photo was taken. The forward docking area shown on the left will be docked with the U.S.-built Node 1 during the first Space Shuttle assembly mission aboard Endeavour in July 1998. The FGB will be transported by rail to the Baikonur launch site in January 1998.