Shuttle Endeavour starts 16-day trip

The US space shuttle Endeavour blasted off from a seaside Florida launch pad yesterday to deliver part of a long-awaited Japanese space laboratory and a Canadian-built robotic system to the International Space Station.

Piercing the still of night with a thunderous boom and a flash of white-hot flame, the spaceship lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 2:28 am EDT (2:28 pm Beijing time) and disappeared swiftly into clouds to begin a 16-day flight.

"We'd like to say konnichiwa, domo arigato and banzai (hello, thank you and banzai)," commander Dominic Gorie said shortly before liftoff, speaking some Japanese in a nod to that country's important role in the mission.