Fire in the night -- Endeavour launched

Busy nine-day mission ahead

January 11, 1996
Web posted at: 9:00 a.m. EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- After a 23-minute delay, space shuttle Endeavour and its six-member crew rocketed into orbit before dawn Thursday morning (128K AIFF sound or 128K WAV sound). Their ambitious nine-day mission includes a satellite retrieval, a separate satellite launch and retrieval, and two spacewalks. The 2,000-ton spaceship rose from its seaside pad at 4:41 a.m. EST, lighting the sky for miles around (536K QuickTime movie). The liftoff delay was caused by communication-system problems.

Newts in space

On Saturday, Japanese astronaut, Koichi Wakata (68K AIFF sound or 68K WAV sound), will use the shuttle's robot arm to retrieve a satellite launched by his home nation almost a year ago and now in orbit nearly 300 miles above Earth. The four-ton reusable satellite holds two dead newts -- they died shortly after being launched from Japan last March -- and fertilized newt eggs, all part of a biological experiment on spawning habits in weightlessness. It also contains crystal-growth furnaces and infrared telescopes.

Japan will pay NASA about $50 million to have the satellite picked up and returned to Earth, marking the first time the shuttle has grabbed a spacecraft launched by another nation. On Sunday, Wakata will use the shuttle's robot arm again to lift a NASA science satellite from the shuttle's payload bay and drop it into orbit.

Two spacewalks

Endeavour Commander Brian Duffy (68K AIFF sound or 68K WAV sound) and his crew will also release a U.S. science satellite that will be retrieved two days later. It carries four experiments, including one that will look at ways near-zero gravity affects baby rats -- some just three days old -- and their mothers.

Pilot Brent Jett will help with the rendezvous of the satellites, while crew members Dan Barry, Winston Scott and Leroy Chiao will conduct spacewalks to check out whether changes made to spacesuits are enough to keep astronauts warm for the long hours they'll need to build the planned international space station.

Scott will give his spacesuit the biggest workout. The orbiter will be rotated away from the sun and the temperature will plunge to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 73 Celsius) while Scott stays at rest. During the two spacewalks, the astronauts also will practice with tools to be used to build the space station.

American astronauts alone will have to perform 200 to 250 hours of spacewalks per year from 1999 through 2001 to assemble the international space station. Japan is one of the station partners, and is aiming for a manned moon base of its own by the middle of the next century.

Chilly launch

It was 44 degrees at liftoff, warm enough under the rules established after the 1986 Challenger disaster. NASA used heaters to protect crucial shuttle parts. The temperature was 36 degrees, the coldest ever for a shuttle launch, when Challenger exploded 10 years ago this month, killing all seven crew members. Investigators found that the cold had stiffened the O-rings in the shuttle's booster rockets, allowing hot gas to seep out.

After the accident, NASA adopted an elaborate formula that takes into account low temperature, wind and humidity in determining whether it is safe to launch. Endeavour is due back at the Kennedy Space Center on January 20.

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