Washington/Moscow - US space shuttle Endeavour blasted off early Tuesday, carrying major additions to the International Space Station from Japan and Canada. Endeavour launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 2:28 am (0628 GMT).
The first section of the Japanese-made Kibo laboratory and a robotic system of the Canadian Space Agency will be delivered by Endeavour's seven-member crew and will be installed during the 16-day mission that is to include five spacewalks.
Japan's Kibo - "hope" in Japanese - laboratory will allow astronauts to perform about 100 experiments that could aid the development of medications and test new materials in the weightless environment. Japanese astronaut Takao Doi is part of the Endeavour crew and help install the Kibo lab on the station.
With the addition of Kibo, Japan's Space Station Integration and Promotion Center north of Tokyo will join other control centers in the United States, Russia and Germany in monitoring components of the space station.
Endeavour's mission comes just two days after Europe's first ever unmanned space transporter was launched, carrying 6 tons of food, fuel and other supplies to the ISS.
