NASA astronauts attached a Russian docking and research module onto the International Space Station Tuesday, bringing the $100 billion complex to near completion. The compartment, known as Rassvet - Russian for “dawn” - was delivered aboard shuttle Atlantis, which is making the third-to-last flight of the shuttle program. Russia plans to launch its prime research laboratory in 2012, which will complete the $100 billion orbital outpost, a project of 16 nations that has been under construction 220 miles (350 km) above Earth since 1998. With Rassvet, the station now has 13 rooms, including two core Russian modules, Zarya and Zvezda, three major laboratories - the U.S.'s Destiny, Europe's Columbus and Japan's Kibo complex - two airlocks, two combination docking compartments/mini research labs, three connecting hubs, and an observatory, known as the Cupola. There also is an outside porch for science experiments and a storage room on the Kibo lab.
