Machine / system · Secret Dawn - Among the Stars
TKS
Heavy transport/return craft; ancestor of the station modules
TKS in the timeline
1977 TKS: the heavy transport that outlived Almaz
The first TKS flies unmanned as Kosmos 929 in 1977; Kosmos 1267 docks with Salyut 6 in 1981 and Kosmos 1443 with Salyut 7 in 1983. The crewed Almaz programme is cancelled, but Chelomei's transport spacecraft and its modules become the basis of the add-on modules for Salyut 7, Mir and eventually the ISS.
1998-11-20 ISS: Zarya, the first module
The Russian-built Zarya module, a direct descendant of the TKS/Almaz lineage, becomes the first element of the International Space Station, the Soviet station heritage reborn.
Where the sources are
This object is named in 5 verified source entries across 2 dossiers of this book. The entries sit with the people who built or used it, which is where the research recorded them.