Updated Thursday, July 16, 9:30 a.m.

On its sixth try, and with weather in Florida cooperating, NASA launched the Space Shuttle Endeavour shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday. The flight will take the Shuttle, and Davidson grad Tom Marshburn, a mission specialist, to a rendezvous with the International Space Station on Friday.

Dr. Marshburn is a Statesville native and the brother of Paul Marshburn of Davidson. Paul Marshburn told The Charlotte Observer on Thursday morning he and wife Nancy didn’t make it to the launch this time, instead watching  from the Grove Park in Asheville. “I wish I could’ve been there, but I’m very relieved,” Paul Marshburn told the newspaper.

Read more about the launch on NASA’s shuttle mission site.