Despite Setbacks, Shuttle Lifts Off To Study Gravity Mission Carries International Crew

Rising on a golden tail of billowing flame, the space shuttle Columbia carried a crew of seven into space Friday for a two-week mission to study both the subtle and grand effects of gravity on materials and living things.

Columbia, carrying a bus-sized module called the International Microgravity Laboratory in its cargo bay, took off on time at 12:43 p.m. despite initial concerns about showers and thunderstorms building up near the Kennedy Space Center and at two emergency landing fields overseas.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said they had been able to handle a few minor problems with ground sensors, computers and power fluctuations.

About a minute into the flight, some ground observers noticed what appeared to be an unusual puff of smoke or mist near the upper part of the exhaust plumb of one of the two solid-fuel booster rockets, which are attached to the shuttle. Loren Shriver, a shuttle program manager, said the puff appeared to result from the interaction of normal shock waves, caused by the shuttle moving through the air at supersonic speed, with a wave of condensed, moist air rolling down the vehicle.

Shriver said no one monitoring the shuttle or its engines had reported anything unusual at the time of the puff, but he said he had made an informal request for engineers to recheck their data.

“Personally, I don’t think it’s anything more than the shock wave going through condensation,” he said after a news briefing.

After the astronauts were safely in orbit, they immediately got down to a busy schedule of activating the laboratory for continuous operation. Working around the clock in two shifts, the astronauts will conduct 82 experiments involving more than 200 scientists from 13 countries. The experiments, in materials and life sciences, include 22 provided by the German Space Agency, 18 from the United States and 12 from the National Space Development Agency of Japan.

The international flavor of the mission is also reflected in the crew, which includes six American men and Japan’s first woman astronaut, Dr. Chiaki NaitoMukai, a heart surgeon from Tokyo. Dr. Mukai, who also has a doctorate in physiology, is the second Japanese astronaut to fly on a shuttle. The first was Mamoru Mohri, who flew in 1992 on a mission dedicated to Japanese life science research.

Other crew members aboard the mission, the 63rd of the shuttle program and the 17th for Columbia, include Marine Col. Robert D. Cabana, mission commander and veteran of two previous flights, and Air Force Lt. Col. James D. Halsell Jr., the shuttle pilot, who is making his initial voyage. Richard J. Hieb, the payload commander, has flown two previous missions, and Air Force Lt. Col. Carl E. Walz, a mission specialist, flew once before. The rookies aboard include Dr. Leroy Chiao and Dr. Donald A. Thomas, both science specialists.