The NASA space shuttle Endeavour blasted off into orbit on Monday on a 13-day mission to the International Space Station.
It is the first in the final series of shuttle missions, before the craft are retired at the end of the year.
NASA says there will only be four more shuttle flights after Endeavour's mission.
The BBC reports take-off occurred at 0414 local time (0914 GMT), 24 hours behind schedule. A thick layer of cloud on Sunday was the cause of the delay.
Endeavour is delivering a connecting node and a large window module in what will be one of the last ISS assembly flights. Both the new modules were manufactured in Italy by Thales Alenia Space.
