Commander Bill Shepherd inspects the interior of the Russian Service Module

97-16433 (December 10, 1997) --- Commander Bill Shepherd of the first International Space Station crew is visible as he inspects the interior of the Russian Service Module recently at the Khrunichev Space and Rocket Center factory in Moscow. The Service Module will be the first fully Russian contribution to the station when it is launched on a Russian Proton booster in December 1998. It will be the cornerstone of the early station, providing living quarters, data processing systems, power, propulsion and life support systems. This view is looking in the aft hatch of the module through the cylindrical transfer chamber into the main compartment. Shepherd's crew will be launched in January 1999 for a five-month stay on the station and includes cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko, Soyuz Commander, and Sergei Krikalev, Flight Engineer. The crew will fly to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.