CAPE CANAVERAL — A blaze of rocket fire bathed the Kennedy Space Center like a sunrise at 2:28 a.m. today, and the space shuttle Endeavour launched into space. The astronauts’ 16-day mission will be the longest by a shuttle crew to the international space station. Among the highlights: setting up a two-armed Canadian-built robot on the exterior of the station, and installing one piece of a Japanese laboratory called Kibo.

   – Curtis Krueger, Times Staff Writer