Posted: Thu, Apr 19, 2001, 3:54 PM ET (1954 GMT)
The space shuttle Endeavour successfully lifted off Thursday afternoon on a mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour lifted off on schedule from the Kennedy Space Center at 2:41 pm EDT (1841 GMT) after a virtually problem-free countdown. The shuttle will spend the next day and a half in orbit approaching ISS, with docking scheduled for 9:36 am EDT (1336 GMT) Saturday. Endeavour will be docked to the station for a week as its seven-man crew transfers supplies into the station and installs a Canadian-built robot arm to the exterior of the station. The shuttle is scheduled to return to Earth at the Kennedy Space Center on the morning of April 30.
