Hundreds Cheer as NASA Unveils Its Newest Endeavour : Shuttle: The $2-billion replacement for the Challenger leaves hangar for final prelaunch assembly. Satellite-repair mission is set for May.

Hundreds of workers here cheered and snapped pictures Saturday as NASA’s new shuttle, the Endeavour, emerged from the hangar and moved a step closer to its first liftoff.

The shuttle is scheduled to lift off on a satellite-repair mission in early May. The weeklong flight will be highlighted by three spacewalks. Astronauts will go out to attach a motor to a communications satellite stranded in a uselessly low orbit, and twice more to practice spacewalking techniques.

The shiny white and black spaceship was transported slowly from the hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building just a few hundred yards away. A recording of Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” boomed from loudspeakers.

“It looks great,” launch director Bob Sieck said. “You can tell by the smiles on everyone’s faces that they’re real proud of this.”

“We started on this thing back when it was just a wing and a fuselage, and to see it the way it is today, it’s really amazing,” said project engineer Hugo Delgado.

Endeavour, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s $2-billion replacement for Challenger, will spend about a week in the giant assembly building. Workers will attach twin solid rocket boosters and an external fuel tank to the orbiter, then transport the shuttle to the launch pad.

Endeavour arrived at Kennedy last May from Rockwell International’s shuttle assembly plant in Palmdale, Calif. The ship filled the gap left by Challenger, which exploded shortly after liftoff in January, 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard.

Space center workers quickly encountered a variety of problems with Endeavour, including scratched and gouged structural beams, crossed wires, exposed electrical connectors and dirty fuel lines.

Endeavour is expected to be NASA’s last shuttle. It features the latest in shuttle equipment--a drag parachute and extra on-board fuel tanks allowing for longer flights. The ship, with a few more modifications, could stay in space for 28 days.

The last time a new shuttle flew was in 1985; the ship was Atlantis. NASA’s oldest shuttle, Columbia, debuted in 1981. Discovery first flew in 1984.

Endeavour is named after the first ship commanded by James Cook, an 18th-Century British explorer--hence the British spelling of the name.