NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour Blasts off

Clouds may have prevented the US space shuttle Endeavour from blasting off over the weekend but it lauched successfully hours ago from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

NASA counted down to the nine-minute mark on Sunday but the sky remained overcast, forcing the delay.

Endeavour is loaded with a new room for the space station, as well as an observation deck. Once both of those are installed, the orbiting complex will be 98 percent complete.

The launch marks one of the last missions for the soon-to-be-retired shuttle fleet.