CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven are blasting into the night sky, bound for the international space station.

The shuttle rose off its launch pad Friday a little before 5 p.m. PST. The brilliant flash of light was visible for miles around.

Endeavour’s astronauts will be undertaking the most extreme home makeover ever attempted in orbit once they reach the space station Sunday.

The astronauts will deliver a new bathroom, kitchenette, two bedrooms and exercise machine, as well as a water recycling system — and a new resident for the space station. A new astronaut will replace one of the three space station residents. The shuttle is loaded with thousands of pounds of space station equipment.

The plan is to expand the living quarters of the space station so the crew can be doubled to six by next June.

Shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson also noted the never-before-attempted repairs that are planned for outside the space station.

Three of the crew will take turns going outside to clean and lubricate a clogged joint that is preventing one set of solar wings from turning automatically toward the sun, and they’ll replace its bearings.

Endeavour and its astronauts will spend 15 days in orbit, including Thanksgiving. The shuttle holds enough turkey dinners for everyone.

This was NASA’s first shuttle launch since the end of May.

The mission was almost thwarted by a threatening cold front that was moving across the central part of the nation Tuesday and was expected to bring rain and thick clouds to the launch site by week’s end.

On the Net:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov