Space shuttle Endeavour blasts off

Nasa's space shuttle Endeavour with its crew of six astronauts has blasted off on its last night flight.

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The crew includes the British-born astronaut Dr Nicholas Patrick, a former Harrow schoolboy and Cambridge graduate from Yorkshire, who blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on one of the shuttle's last flights.
The shuttle programme is nearing retirement and there are only another four flights left.
Dr Patrick, 45, a father-of-three, will circle the earth at 17,500mph and perform three grueling space walks on his 13-day mission to the International Space Station, where he will help to fit a new module to the existing structure.
“The space station is as big as it’s ever been, and we’ll make it bigger,” he said before taking off. “It’s a great place to live and work.”
After being fascinated by the Apollo moon landings Dr Patrick left England to pursue a career in aviation and aerospace, and became a US citizen in 1994.
He worked as an engineer for General Electric and Boeing before being selected as an astronaut by Nasa in 1998. He previously flew to the space station in 2006.
His wife, Dr Rossanna Palomino, is a pediatrician. They have two sons and a daughter, aged three to seven.
Dr Patrick and his five fellow astronauts lifted off on the space shuttle Endeavour and successfully reached orbit eight-and-a-half minutes later.
The launch director, Mike Leinbach, told the crew: “We wish you good luck and Godspeed, and see you in about two weeks.”
The Endeavour mission will attach a new module called Tranquility to the space station, which will then be 90 per cent complete.
It will be the last major building job on the $100 billion (£60 billion) station which has involved 16 nations and been under construction since 1998.
Tranquility is seven metres long and weighed 15 tonnes at launch. It includes a seven window glass dome which will provide unprecedented panoramic views of Earth and space for astronauts.
Nasa’s shuttle programme ends later this year after 29 years. The space agency is re-evaluating its future after President Barack Obama effectively abandoned its plan to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020.