A Proton K successfully launched the Zvezda Service Module to the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome Launch Complex 81 pad 23 at 9:56:28 p.m. PDT July 11 (0456:28 UTC July 12). The US$300 million Zvezda was built by Energia, all of the funding being provided by Russia.

The 19,100 kg (42,000 lbm) Russian service module Zvezda (Russian for "star") will provide crew quarters, propulsion and flight control for the International Space Station. Zvezda will assume control of the station, taking over attitude control and reboost of the station. Computers on Zvezda will also handle guidance and navigation of the station. As the station grows, new modules will take over roles initially handled by Zvezda. However, Zvezda will remain as the core of the Russian contribution to the station. Zvezda includes two docking ports for future Russian modules to attach to the station, in addition to the docking port to be used by Soyuz and unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft.

Controllers will check out the spacecraft’s systems, while it maneuvers during the next two weeks to rendezvous with the two existing ISS modules in orbit, Zarya and Unity. Docking of Zvezda with Zarya is scheduled for 6:10 pm PDT July 25 (0110 UTC July 26), as the Kurs automated docking system on Zarya controls the docking with Zvezda, which will serve as the passive "target" during the docking. Should the automated docking system fail, Russia would launch two cosmonauts to the station on a Soyuz about 15 days later. The crew would dock with Zvezda and assemble a backup teleoperated rendezvous control system (TORU), that would be used to dock the modules. The crew would return to Earth shortly after the modules were docked.

Originally planned for launch in the spring of 1998, the launch of Zvezda was delayed to the end of 1999 by ongoing technical and financial problems.  The module was ready for launch by late December 1999, but the failure of two Proton launches in July and October pushed back the schedule while the Proton's problems were investigated, corrected and the rocket completed several successful launches. The hull of Zvezda was actually built in 1985 intended to be the core of a Mir II space station, which was subsequently never launched.

Pizza Hut paid US$1 million to place their logo on the side of the Proton rocket. Despite recent controversy regarding who had the rights to license the advertising for the flight, the logo was visible on the rocket. Khrunichev only received US$150,000 of the proceeds, with the other money apparently divided among the Russian advertising company Planeta Zemlya (Planet Earth) and two US companies, Space Marketing Inc and Globus Space, which developed the public relations campaign.

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