Heaters Help Shuttle Endeavour Lift Off in Florida Chill

Warmed by heaters to keep its O-rings supple, space shuttle Endeavour lifted off with six astronauts Thursday in the coldest launch weather since the Challenger disaster and began chasing a science satellite.

The astronauts, five Americans and one Japanese, plan to capture the Japanese satellite Saturday. It will be their chief job in orbit during the nine-day flight.

Endeavour began the 300-mile-high chase with a brilliant early morning launch. It was 44 degrees for the 4:41 a.m. EST liftoff, the lowest temperature at launch since a rocket carrying Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, and the second-lowest ever during a shuttle launch. The timing was dictated by the course the shuttle must follow to catch the satellite.

The temperature was 36 when Challenger was destroyed after launch, killing all seven crew members. Investigators said the cold had stiffened the O-rings in the shuttle’s booster rockets, allowing hot gas to leak through a joint.

The heaters are one of the improvements made after the accident.

Halfway around the world, a cheering crowd of more than 1,000 gathered in a plaza in Omiya near Tokyo, astronaut Koichi Wakata’s hometown. They watched the launch on a huge screen, shouting “Banzai!” three times.

Wakata will use the shuttle robot arm to retrieve the satellite, which was launched from Japan last March.

The 4-ton reusable satellite holds fertilized newt eggs and two adult newts that were allowed to die after they spawned in orbit. The eggs will be studied as a possible protein source on spaceflights.

Two spacewalks are scheduled to practice for space station construction.