By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 9 (Reuters) - NASA on Sunday cleared the space shuttle Endeavour to launch early Tuesday to begin attaching a Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station and install Canadian-built robot arms.

Liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for 2:28 a.m. EDT/0628 GMT. Meteorologists predicted a 90 percent chance weather conditions would be suitable for the rare night launch.

"We're feeling really good about an attempt Tuesday morning," launch director Mike Leinbach told reporters.

"Our Japanese people have been waiting for a very long, long time," added Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, space station program manager with JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Japan began planning its own permanent space laboratory, costing around $2.4 billion, 20 years ago, he said.

Endeavour will carry an equipment and storage room for JAXA's elaborate three-part laboratory, named Kibo, a Japanese word for "hope."

The main part of the lab is scheduled to be launched in late May. The final section, an outdoor porch with robotic arms for tending to science experiments, is due to fly next year.

With the installation of the Japanese-built module, the $100 billion space station will finally start living up to its multinational status after 10 years of construction.

The United States and Russia lead the 15-nation partnership, which includes Canada, Japan and 11 members of the European Space Agency.

The space shuttle Atlantis last month carried Europe's first permanent space lab to the station.

NASA has two years to finish constructing the station before the space shuttle fleet is retired.

Like Europe, which Saturday night launched its first supply ship from a space port in French Guiana to the station, Japan also plans to fly cargo to the outpost on Japanese-owned unmanned capsules, starting hopefully in 2009.

Endeavour's astronauts plan five spacewalks during their 12 days at the station, two of which will be dedicated to constructing a robotic pair of hands for the station's crane.

The Canadian addition, called Dextre, can reach 30 feet (9-meter) and will be able to install and service components as small as a phone book or as large as a phone booth.

NASA hopes to use Dextre to supplement time-consuming and risky spacewalks needed to maintain the station. (Editing by Michael Christie and Alan Elsner)

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