Only Clouds Mar Shuttle’s Secret Liftoff

The space shuttle Discovery rode on searing flames into orbit this afternoon, carrying a secret military cargo intended to boost the nation’s ability to spy on Soviet communications.

The launch into a sky marred only by the slightest wisps of clouds took place under unprecedented security for a shuttle operation, intended to foil attempts to determine the nature of the mysterious mission by hiding its launch time until the final nine minutes of the countdown.

The launch was flawless.

Showdows lengthened as the 2:50 p.m. EST takeoff approached. Under the perfect conditions--in contrast to the unusual freeze the delayed the launch by a day--the spacecraft and its external fuel tank could be seen four minutes into the flight, when it was about 100 miles out from the space center over the Atlantic Ocean.

No Soviet Trawlers

Soviet trawlers--which customarily take up positions just outside the United States’ three-mile territorial limit--were not on station, the Navy said.

The five-member shuttle crew--the commander, Navy Capt. Thomas K. Mattingly; Lt. Col. Loren J. Shriver of the Air Force; Maj. Ellison S. Onizuka of the Air Force, Lt. Col. James F. Buchli of the Marine Corps, and Maj. Gary E. Payton of the Air Force--left their quarters around midday. But as a result of the secrecy of the launch time, the normal crowd of well-wishers was limited to space center workers who needed to be in the vicinity. News photographers were not escorted to the departure area.

The Pentagon, which is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s sole customer on the mission, refused to disclose the nature of the cargo.

However, the ship was said to be carrying a new radio satellite intended to help intercept Soviet signals sent through space.

The mission--the 15th by the shuttle--was testing for the second time an inertial upper-stage booster mechanism intended to blast a satellite from the shuttle’s cargo hold at least 100 miles above the Equator to a “geosynchronous” orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth.