The six Americans and one Canadian onboard Endeavour are scheduled to reach the ISS on Friday, where they will install a platform for astronauts to conduct experiments 350 kilometers (220 miles) above Earth's surface.

The shuttle finally blasted off Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center, after the launch was put off five times because of weather woes and technical troubles.

Soaring spectacularly into the Florida sky, the shuttle accelerated into space, reaching 26,000 kilometers (16,150 miles) per hour in less than nine minutes.

Eight minutes after launch, the shuttle entered orbit 225 kilometers (140 miles) above Earth, and a few moments later the could be seen successfully separating from the external fuel tank.

NASA said it hoped the launch would help fulfill "Japan's hope for an out-of-this-world space laboratory," as the shuttle delivers state-of-the-art equipment to conduct experiments in the vacuum of space.

A US space agency official downplayed the potential of damage caused by debris that peeled off from Endeavour's external fuel tank during liftoff and could be seen hitting the shuttle about two minutes into the flight in images broadcast on NASA TV.

The debris could be ice or foam that broke off from the external fuel tank, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for space operations.

"We had some foam loss events," Gerstenmaier told reporters. "You can clearly see, on the front part of the orbiter, some white indications where the tiles were dinged.

"We don't consider those an issue for us, those are probably coating losses," he said.

But specialists will scrutinize the images, Gerstenmaier said, and later the shuttle exterior will be closely examined by the Endeavour and ISS crews.

"The issues will be in the back of the vehicle and we'll take a look at those when we do the roll-pitch maneuver that's planned," he said.

NASA has been wary about conditions for the space shuttle's exit and return since the shuttle Columbia blew apart some 20,000 meters (65,500 feet) above the Earth in 2003 as it was returning from a 16-day space mission to land in Florida.

A chunk of insulation that broke off from the shuttle's external fuel tank during take-off had gouged Columbia's left wing heat shield, allowing superheated gases to melt the shuttle's internal structure before it exploded, killing all seven astronauts onboard.

NASA's relief was evident when it became clear that weather would not cause another costly lift-off delay.

"It was a testimony for this entire launch and flight control team," launch director Pete Nickolenko said of the countdown and successful liftoff. "It was an outstanding effort, and it made the complex look really easy. It really was a case of persistence."

Endeavour's launch had been scrubbed three times since Saturday due to inclement weather. Two earlier attempts in June were aborted after potentially hazardous leaks to the shuttle's external fuel tank were discovered.

The aborted attempts left the cash-strapped US space agency footing 4.5 million dollars in extra costs.

Gerstenmaier cautioned that the Endeavour mission, which includes five planned spacewalks and robotic activities, is "very challenging."

"The teams are fully prepared -- they're ready to go do what they need to go do, and we look forward to the exciting activities as we install the Exposed Facility out on the Kibo module," he said.

The shuttle crew includes Canadian Julie Payette, an electrical and information engineer who has been in space before and is the only woman on board.

American aerospace engineer Tim Kopra, 46, will replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, spending several months aboard the orbiting station.

He would be the latest addition to the permanent crew of the ISS, which is a joint collaboration between 16 different countries.

The ISS is slated for completion in 2010, also the target date for the retirement of the US fleet of three space shuttles.

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