The NASA Endeavour space shuttle has successfully reached the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said on its website on Wednesday.

The docking took place some 360 km (225 miles) above the northern coast of Spain at 05:06 GMT.

NASA initially planned to launch the shuttle, carrying a crew of six astronauts, on Sunday but liftoff from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida was postponed to Monday due to bad weather.

"The shuttle and station crews will open hatches and hold the traditional welcome ceremony at 2:04 a.m. [EST, 07:04 GMT] Endeavour's crew will be working with Expedition 22 commander NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and flight engineers cosmonaut Max Suraev, NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi," NASA said in a statement.

The STS-130 crew comprises commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts and mission specialists Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken, Stephen Robinson and Kathryn Hire.

The shuttle will deliver to the space station a third connecting module, the Italian-built Tranquility node and its attached seven-windowed cupola, which will be used as a control room for robotics.

The mission will feature three spacewalks - on February 11, 13 and 16.

Separation from the ISS is scheduled for February 20.

MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti)