April 13, 1981

The Rangers gained a place in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals last night by defeating the Los Angeles Kings, 6-3, at Madison Square Garden. They took the three-of-five-game preliminary playoff, three games to one. After the Kings had come from one goal behind to tie the score three times during the first two periods. the Rangers broke away. Ron Duguay had two goals in the game, his fourth and fifth of the playoffs, and an assist. The other Ranger goals were by Lance Nethery, his first of the playoffs; Ulf Nilsson, his fifth; Tom Laidlaw, his first, and Anders Hedberg, his third. The Rangers outshot the Kings, 48-27.

The space shuttle Columbia, its rockets spewing orange fire and a long trail of white vapor, blasted its way into earth orbit today, carrying two American astronauts on a daring journey to test the world's first re-usable spaceship. Soon after they settled into orbit, John W. Young, a civilian, and Capt. Robert L. Crippen of the Navy focused a television camera on the Columbia's tail section and discovered that more than a dozen heat-shielding tiles had ripped off, possibly because of the stresses of launching. Project officials said that the tile loss should not shorten the flight or endanger the lives of the astronauts when the Columbia plunges back into the atmosphere, glowing red-hot from frictional heat, to attempt a runway landing Tuesday. The projected 36-orbit, 54 1/2-hour flight is scheduled to end at Edwards Air Force Base in California. 'We've Got a Super Vehicle' ''I'm just not concerned about it,'' Neil B. Hutchinson, a flight director at Mission Control in Houston, said in discussing the tile problem at a news conference this afternoon. ''We've got a super vehicle up there.''

Governor Carey has prepared a legislative program to eliminate many regulations on the state's cable television industry. One proposal could open the way for new cable television companies to compete in places where there are now, in effect, exclusive franchises. Most of the bills have already been sent to the Legislature, although the Governor has not yet formally announced the program. Some other elements of Mr. Carey's package are these: - The amount municipalities could charge cable operators for the right to ''wire'' their jurisdictions would be limited.

''Aside from all the esthetic considerations, the continued erection of the so-called 'skyscraper' constitutes a menace to public health and safety and an offence which must be stopped,'' proclaimed a writer in the American Architect and Building News in 1908, when the tallest building in New York was the 657-foot-high Metropolitan Life Insurance tower, and the slender Flat-iron Building was a mere six years old. So public outcry over the size of new buildings in New York is nothing new: it has been going on almost since the first skyscrapers were erected. But the immense wave of new construction that the city is now experiencing - a wave totaling some 16 million square feet of office space, not to mention numerous hotels, apartment buildings and institutional structures - has brought forth perhaps the greatest public debate over how Manhattan should grow since the early years of this century, when the hue and cry over the great bulk of the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway led to the passage of the first zoning laws in the United States. The debate is focused on the City Planning Commission's announced intention to revise the city's zoning ordinance, at least as far as it applies to midtown Manhattan development.

Following are excerpts from conversations the astronauts had with Shuttle Launch Control in Cape Canaveral and Mission Control in Houston, as recorded by The New York Times: GEORGE F. PAGE, director of shuttle operations (after reading President Reagan's message): John, we can't do more from a launch team than say we sure wish you an awful lot of luck. We're with you a thousand percent. And we're awful proud to have been a part of it. Good luck, John. JOHN YOUNG: Cripp and I are mighty proud to have worked with you fellows. You're absolutely professional - the best there is. And that's a mighty fine speech and we sure appreciate it. SHUTTLE LAUNCH CONTROL: As preparation for main engine ignition, the main fuel cell heaters have been turned off. T minus 3 minutes 57 seconds and counting. The final helium purge on the shuttle main engine has been started in preparation for engine start. The liquid replenish system has been turned off in preparation for pressurization of the tanks for the launch. T minus 3 minutes 35 seconds and counting.