Watch it the video below the launching of the Shuttle Endeavor:

When the two jet booster separated, debris hit the shuttle but officials said that the damage is not really that serious. But astronauts will study the damage on its effect on the reentry.

With regards to its mission, NYTimes reported:

The mission, scheduled to last 16 days, includes five spacewalks dedicated to the construction of the space station. Engineers were also monitoring one of the Endeavour’s three fuel cells, which generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen. Water is a byproduct, and one cell did not seem to be removing the water efficiently. …

The commander of the Endeavour mission is Mark L. Polansky, a retired Air Force pilot, and the pilot is Lt. Col. Douglas G. Hurley of the Marines. Also aboard are Cmdr. Christopher J. Cassidy of the Navy, Col. Timothy L. Kopra of the Army, Dr. Thomas H. Marshburn and Dr. David A. Wolf, all of NASA, and Julie Payette of the Canadian Space Agency.

Colonel Kopra will remain on the space station as a flight engineer while Koichi Wakata of the Japanese Space Agency, who has been in orbit since March, will return to Earth on the Endeavour. …

The Endeavour brought up the final pieces to complete the Japanese laboratory on the space station. The “front porch” of the laboratory is to hold experimental samples exposed to the extremes of outer space.