Updated at 14:20

NASA’S SHUTTLE Endeavour has lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for the final space mission of its 19-year career.

Commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly, the Endeavour will travel to the International Space Station where the shuttle’s six-person crew will carry out maintenance work and deliver a particle detector called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Their mission is expected to last 16 days.

The shuttle weighed 4.5 million pounds before lifting off, but its boosters burned 11,000 pounds of fuel per second as it travelled into space. It hit speeds of 13,500mph en route.

Delayed launch

Endeavour was due to launch late last month, but take-off was cancelled just as the crew was being driven to the launch pad due to a faulty heater part. NASA said engineers would need at least a week to replace and test a switch box inside the engine compartment.

Work on the shuttle had also been temporarily suspended in April after a NASA employee fell to his death from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Centre.

Kelly’s wife, US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was seriously injured in a shooting attack in Arizona earlier this year, but travelled to Florida for the launch.

Endeavour, which has been in operation for 19 years, will be displayed at the California Science Centre in LA when it is retired after this final mission. NASA is planning just one more shuttle mission this year – the last of its 30-year space shuttle programme.

Video uploaded by RussiaToday