"Zvezda is now firmly attached to the International Space Station," NASA spokesman Kyle Herring reported from Russias Mission Control Center in Korolev, a space town on the outskirts of Moscow.
Coming almost two years after launch of the stations first two building blocks, the high-flying hookup was considered crucial to a stalled construction project that involves 100,000 workers from 16 nations on four continents.
Future outpost assembly and the scheduled arrival in early November of the stations first full-time crew depended entirely upon it.
"This is the key to the next generation of space-station operations thats how I would characterize it," said Dennis Newkirk, a highly regarded Russian space expert and author of the Almanac of Soviet Manned Space Flight.
"They can finally get on with the program after years of waiting."
The high-stakes rendezvous and docking actually began July 12 with the launch of Zvezda which is the Russian word for "star" from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Liftoff was precisely timed to put Zvezda on course for the station, which at that point was made up of a Russian space tug and an American docking module.
Flight controllers in Moscow conducted periodic firings of Zvezdas twin engines over the past two weeks, propelling the $340 million module from its initial parking orbit to one in the vicinity of the new global outpost.
During the same time frame, engines on the station tug were fired several times to bring the outpost and Zvezda to within 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) of each other by early Tuesday.
The final rendezvous began about 5:45 p.m. EDT (21:45 GMT). With its fuel reserves running low, station engines were fired twice in a bid to close the final gap between the craft.
Flying above and in front of Zvezda, the outpost first maneuvered over the all-important module and then dropped to a point 660 feet (200 meters) below it.
Then, maneuvering at a glacially slow speed of 0.45 miles (0.72 kilometers) per hour, the station finally eased up to Zvezda and docked with it while both craft were in range of six Russian ground stations.
A small space station unto itself, the bus-sized Zvezda is considered the key building block that will enable a 16-nation consortium to erect a 480-ton research complex in space.
Nearly identical to the core lab of Russias Mir space station, the spacecraft is equipped with a command post and living quarters as well as life support, electrical power, computer, communications, flight-control and propulsion systems.
The docking cleared the way for another 39 U.S. shuttle flights and seven Russian rocket missions that will be needed to launch nearly 100 more major station components.
Construction now is expected to continue through mid 2006.
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