Space shuttle Endeavour blasts off at last

Endeavour lifts off from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre

It's taken six attempts, but the space shuttle Endeavour has finally blasted into space on its latest mission.

It's a month later than planned, after bad weather and fuel leaks led to five earlier attempts at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida being cancelled.

The shuttle is taking extra equipment to the International Space Station to finish work on a research laboratory.

When it arrives, its seven astronauts will boost the total crew on board to 13, which is a record for the ISS.

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Lightning strikes and storms delayed earlier launch attempts

Astronauts have been building the space station for more than 10 years now and it's about the size of a four-bedroom house.

The shuttle launched on Wednesday, just hours before the 40th anniversary of the launch of the space mission which led to man's first moon landing.

And it made it just in time... if the shuttle hadn't taken off by Thursday, it would have had to have waited until the end of the month to make way for a Russian cargo ship.