Shuttle Endeavour Blasts Into Space; Crew Deploys Satellite

Endeavour rocketed into space Wednesday on the year’s first shuttle flight, and the five astronauts promptly released a communications satellite.

“There she goes,” crew member Mario Runco Jr. said as the satellite drifted from the cargo bay six hours into the mission.

The astronauts also plan a toy show and spacewalk during the mission, and will get a chance to use a new $30-million toilet.

NASA’s newest shuttle lifted off its seaside pad at 5:59 a.m. PST, seven minutes late because of extra computer checks.

“It’s a good ride up, and Endeavour and the crew are glad to be back in space,” commander John Casper said shortly after liftoff.

The crew’s first, and primary, task was to deploy the $200-million Tracking and Data Relay Satellite from the cargo bay. An attached rocket was then fired and propelled the 2 1/2-ton satellite toward a 22,300-mile-high orbit.

The job was considered routine. Astronauts have placed TDRS satellites in orbit four times in the past: the first in 1983 and the last in 1991. One Tracking and Data Relay Satellite was destroyed when Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986.

The TDRS network allows astronauts to communicate with Mission Control more than 85% of the time. Before TDRS, contact was possible only when spaceships were in sight of ground tracking stations, about 15% of the time.

The satellites also link scientific satellites, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, with ground controllers.

The next major event of Endeavour’s mission occurs Friday, when the astronauts pull out an assortment of toys for a televised lesson. They will talk with students at four elementary schools while demonstrating how balls, cars and magnetic marbles behave in weightlessness.

Two astronauts are scheduled to step into the open cargo bay Sunday for a spacewalk. It is the first in a series of test spacewalks planned by NASA during the next three years to prepare for construction of space station Freedom.

Endeavour’s new toilet also is geared toward the future. The new commode can accommodate much more solid waste than the old model--essential if shuttle flights are to exceed two weeks--and is said to require less crew operation.

Launching Endeavour

NASA’s latest space shuttle launch:

THE CREW: Crew of five, including Cmdr. John Casper, 49, an Air Force colonel; pilot Donald McMonagle, 40; Gregory Harbaugh, 36; Navy Lt. Cmdr. Mario Runco Jr., 40; and Air Force Maj. Susan Helms, 34.

THE MISSION: Highlights will include deployment of a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, part of an array of satellites providing global communications for orbiting shuttles and science and military spacecraft.

THE LAUNCH: 5:59 a.m. PST, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is Endeavour’s third flight.

EXPERIMENTS: The crew is assigned to play with toys to show schoolchildren in a live television broadcast how lack of gravity works. A spacewalk is planned to help improve the efficiency of working outside, and astronauts will test a new $30-million toilet.

MORE FLIGHTS: Seven more shuttle flights are planned in 1993, including a German-chartered science mission in February, the first flight of a Russian cosmonaut in November and a repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in December.