The US space shuttle Endeavour has blasted off from Florida, bound for the International Space Station.

The newest of Nasa's three remaining space shuttles, Endeavour and its seven-man crew left Earth in a rare night launch.

The $100 billion (£50bn) project will be the longest planned visit by a shuttle to the orbital outpost.

It will spend 16 days in orbit - 12 of them at the International Space Station (ISS), where it will deliver the first part of a huge Japanese laboratory.

The final section of the $2.4 billion (£1.2bn) Japanese lab called Kibo, which means 'hope', will be launched into space next year - culminating a 20-year effort by Japan to build a facility in space.

The mission will include five spacewalks, two of which will be dedicated to constructing a robotic pair of hands for the station's crane.

The Canadian system, called Dextre, spans 30ft (9m) from the tip of one arm to the other, and will be able to install and service components as small as a phone book or as large as a phone booth.

Astronauts also plan to test on a spacewalk a heat shield repair technique designed after the 2003 Columbia accident.

Debris damaged Columbia's wing at launch, causing the ship to break up during its fiery descent through the atmosphere for landing. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

The United States and Russia lead the 15-nation space station partnership, which includes Canada, Japan and 11 members of the European Space Agency.

Nasa has two years to finish constructing the station before the space shuttle fleet is retired.

Space around the ISS will be more crowded than usual during Endeavour's mission.

Europe's first cargo ship, an unmanned Automated Transfer Vehicle called Jules Verne, was launched from French Guiana on Saturday and will be hovering near the station during the shuttle's visit, waiting for its turn to berth.

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