Space shuttle blasts off on last night flight

The space shuttle took flight before dawn, igniting the sky with a brilliant flash seen for miles around. The weather cooperated at the last minute; Sunday morning's try was thwarted by thick, low clouds that returned and almost caused another delay.

“Looks like the weather came together tonight,” launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right before liftoff. “It's time to go fly.”

“We'll see you in a couple weeks,” replied commander George Zamka. He repeated: “It's time to go fly.”

Endeavour's destination ─ the space station, home to five men ─ was soaring over Romania at the time of liftoff. The shuttle is set to arrive at the station early Wednesday.

Zamka and his crew will deliver and install Tranquility, a new room that will eventually house life-support equipment, exercise machines and a toilet, as well as a seven-windowed dome. The lookout has the biggest window ever sent into space, a circle 31 inches (79 centimeters) across.

It will be the last major construction job at the space station. No more big pieces like that are left to fly.

Both the new room and dome ─ together exceeding US$400 million ─ were supplied by the European Space Agency.

Endeavour's launch also was broadcast to the space station residents, who got to watch it live.

Monday morning's countdown ended up being uneventful, except for a last-minute run to the launch pad. Astronaut Stephen Robinson forgot the binder holding all his flight data files, and the emergency red team had to rush it out to him, just before he climbed aboard. The launch team couldn't resist some gentle teasing.

The 13-day shuttle mission comes at one of the most agonizing times for NASA. Exactly one week ago, the space agency finally got its marching orders from President Barack Obama: Ditch the back-to-the-moon Constellation program and its Ares rockets, and pack on the research for an as-yet-unspecified rocket and destination.

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