CAPE CANAVERAL — Rocket fire bathed the Kennedy Space Center like a sunrise at 2:28 this morning, as the space shuttle Endeavour launched into orbit. Astronauts began a 16-day mission, the longest visit by a shuttle crew to the international space station. Among the mission highlights: setting up a two-armed, Canadian-built robot and installing the first piece of a Japanese laboratory.

   – Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer