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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1969)
• ■ • - • : : : 'Vas dj, Ollj 1 goo 4 it." Tls Battalion Exclusive Pressure Built at MSC as LM Headed for Moon EDITOR’S NOTE: Bob Peek, Jattalion photographer-colum- jst, is working with the Asso- iated Press news team cover- ng the Apollo 12 moon shot rom the Manned Spacecraft ’.enter in Houston. During his mployment, Bob had planned o write an article a day for 'he Battalion to provide an in- ide glimpse into happenings the MSC during a space light A 22-hour work day lept Bob from calling in a story or Wednesday, so here is the econd of his inside looks. Lunar Module to separate from the Command Module and begin its descent to the-moon’s surface neared. In the face of a 20-hour day, unexpected problems become even more frustrating to the harried newsmen. Despite potentially ser ious incidents, no one “lost his cool.” is Ai.y ises tt n g yarl rospe 1; Bob Peek l, 20,' ®ttalion Staff Writer Early Tuesday morning, Apollo began its daily telecast from space, but the picture didn’t ap pear on the closed-circuit TV screen in the newsroom. Writers and editors exchanged puzzled looks for a few seconds, then everyone moved at once. SPACE CENTER, Houston — essure built in the Space Cen- ■ newsroom as the time for the One man reached for a phone and called CBS, the “cool” net work, who was suplying the pic tures for the closed-circuit moni tor. The assistant AP bureau chief for Texas ran upstairs to perso nally visit CBS’ headquarters. The writers gathered about the man on the telephone or sat around looking disgusted. “How do you write about a broadcast if you can’t see it?” seemed to be the consensus of opinion. An editor from the AP photo lab walked in looking as if some one had stabbed him in the back. The lack of a picture on his monitors was tantamount to dis aster. The AP gets its pictures of the TV broadcasts by setting tripod-mounted Hasselblat 500-C cameras inches from the two small monitor screens. Without the monitors, the photographers had to rely on NBC’s nationwide broadcast. Un fortunately, the picture quality of network television is inferior to the small closed-circuit monitors. Thus, photographs of the broad cast would be of inferior quality. CBS said their broadcast was on a different circuit than the AP’s receiver but that every thing would be straightened out in time for the next broadcast, the moon walk itself. The grumbling in the newsroom diminished, but didn’t disappear for some time. Later Tuesday morning, an other problem arose. A scheduled radio broadcast from Apollo 12 wasn’t coming over the closed- circuit radio speaker. NASA was blithely continuing its broadcast of a press conference while Mis sion Control talked with the as tronauts and newsmen steamed in their press rooms. Finally, NASA switched to the astronauts. More grumbling. Some of the problems involved pratfall humor. There are two telephones and three odd-looking headset telephones scattered around the AP newsroom. About 6 p. m. Tuesday every phone in sight was in use. Then the phone rang. “Where is it?” someone shouted. “There isn’t one,” someone else answered, laughing at the ridi culous situation. AP writer John Barbour dove behind the main desk and emerged .seconds later with a headset and a smile stretching from sideburn to sideburn: “I got it!” Barbour is one of the more colorful newsmen covering man’s return to the moon. He came to work Tuesday night dressed com pletely in white with the distinct exception of his starkly black socks. Equally colorful is Harry Ro senthal, AP writer from Wash ington, D.C. He is the sort of man anyone likes, despite his be ing over 30. Harry is short but athletic, with black curly hair that’s beginning to thin from the back. He is equally recognizable by the glasses and enormous pipe which part the air in front of him wherever he walks. The day after the launch, he flew in from Cape Kennedy and upon his arrival in the newsroom, headed straight for the trunk (na tional) wire. “My kid’s marching on the Jus tice Department right now,” he explained. “I want to see how he’s doing.” Monday, the editors wanted a story about the Russian space program. “I’ve got a Russian expert,” Rosenthal offered. “One of the secretaries in the Soviet Em bassy.” “Does he know anything about the Russian space program?” the editors queried. “He ought to,” Rosenthal re plied. “He’s their chief spy.” ★ ★ ★ thout« l ry «as| [ °, aJ : >rshrj prostn seasot ntrepid Blasts ChC BattaliOfl iar ear. plans 1 “Plays coach 5 cai ■ „ i.: 165, ■ ■ ■ lomort n s[« , 180, tee Ifbati r, into . has throij r, 6-i n St. I rushff mart site mi le to Howard Benedict Aerospace Writer PACE CENTER, Houston <A>> Apollo 12 explorers Charles ete” Conrad Jr. and Alan L. blasted off the moon into lar orbit today and began the mplex chase to catch and link with their mother ship for the ig journey home. The fiery liftoff climaxed a sy day on the moon in which inrad and Bean trekked a mile ross lunar wastelands and care- collected a treasure for Uy ?ari( against Right on schedule, at 9:26 a.m. a burst from the engine the base of their cabin section for hi KO . Aik didatc choics !, 6-5, lout ft BS rgiek diiled tionsi dg. and* idaifJ es ook All i* ill vs 11 isued e of ci afely Away n rom Moon More on Apollo, page 3 ulted the astronauts off man’s :ond lunar outpost in the Ocean Storms. “Man, this is a hot machine,” nrad shouted as the tiny lunar jd rry Intrepid blasted them off en hj, a moon after a stay of 31 hours minutes. “What a nice ride.” Their target, the command ship mkee Clipper, with Richard F. J 0 irdon Jr at the controls, was 65 *les overhead and about 90 miles ead at the time of ignition. the time the lunar ferry trepid achieved orbit seven inutes later, Gordon was more 300 miles ahead and the ase was on. Intrepid was in a near-perfect bit ranging from 10 to 54 miles love the surface. On the way up, the astronauts lub S§ported a master alarm flashed briefly, but they could detect ithing wrong. Conrad said he “got to watch- g that problem” and allowed a ight overbum of 1% seconds, Wch he was able to trim out. Conrad and Bean had to catch ordon in a 3%-hour chase to et back to earth. The lunar craft not designed to take them . Win! o me _ ’ sabfi After executing a complex se- of maneuvers, they were to up with the command ship :05 p. m. Conrad and Bean will transfer into the command ship and later today the astronauts plan to de liberately crash Intrepid on the moon, about 15 miles from Apol lo 12’s base, to excite a moon- quake device left on the surface. Then they’ll spend an extra day in lunar orbit, photographing fu ture landing sites before starting back to earth Friday. Splashdown is scheduled for 3:57 p. m. Mon day in the Pacific Ocean. Shortly before liftoff, Mission Control assessed Intrepid’s sys tems and reported: “You’re go to cast off,” using a nautical term for the all-Navy crew. “Liftoff and away we go,” Con rad exclaimed as the tiny craft rocketed off the moon. The four-legged descent stage that lowered them to the moon Wednesday served as a launching pad today and was left behind on the moon, along with five scientific instruments and un needed boots, tools, trash and other items dumped there by the astronauts. The astronauts had two re grets: The failure of a color television camera and the fact that they didn’t have more time to spend on the surface. The camera failed, apparently because its image tube was burned when Bean pointed it at the sun, after only 45 minutes’ operation during the first moon-walk Wed nesday. “I’m sure sorry the television didn’t work.” Conrad apologized. “It’s a beautiful sight to see Intrepid and Surveyor sitting here on this crater.” “We could spend eight or nine hours right here,” Conrad said at one point when Mission Control instructed the astronauts to move on to another crater. Later, he looked longingly at a large boulder in the distance and said: “I sure wish we had time to go over to that boulder. It’s the biggest one we’ve seen.” Conrad and Bean were as ex cited as amateur rockhounds on a geology field trip as they shuf fled across the bleak lunar land scape. They kept up a lovely com mentary for scientists listening in Mission Control as they moved from one crater to another—Head Crater, Bench Crater, Halo Crater, Triple Crater, Surveyor Crater and Blocke Crater. The trail etched an irregular ellipse so that at no time were the astronauts more than 1,500 feet from the safety of Intrepid. They found varying shades of color in the lunar soil. “In places, the rocks are brown,” Bean reported. “In other places they’re grey, and in others they’re white.” They also inspected and photo graphed what they described as old and fresh craters, the latter with mounds of dirt piled up on the rims. But everywhere there was the thick layer of soot-like dust that dirtied the astronauts’ white suits and at times collected on their cameras and tools. “We’re really grimy,” Conrad commented. Their voices were filled with excitement whenever they spotted interesting rocks or other fea tures. “Hey, look at this one!” or, “We gotta get that one!” were frequent exclamations. “Man!” Conrad shouted near Head Crater, “have I got the grapefruit rock of all grapefruit rocks.” It was big, he said, and he wanted to know if he could roll it down the crater slope so that a seismometer deployed earlier could get a reading of its roll. He made sure Bean was stand ing still and said: “Houston, on my mark, I’m going to roll it. Hit, hit, now! It’s just rolling, roll, roll, roll, still rolling. Still rolling, still rolling, slowly, then it stopped.” The seismometer needles moved with its bounce and the informa tion was relayed a quarter million miles to Mission Control. In another test of the seismo- (See Intrepid, page 3) ttofli luildr* ipointi re - Registration for Spring Will Be Held Next Month i-i * led l* iber k! idle. idmg fs w i mail rts f>' onM DUAl UM' HESJ UlE SEC- pead Pre-registration for the spring emester at Texas A&M will be eld Dec. 1-12, announced Regis- far Robert A. Lacey. A meeting of deans, depart- aent heads and registration ad- isors involved with pre-registra- ion will be held at 3 p.m. Tues- lay in Room 001 of the YMCA, ■<acey noted. The registrar encouraged all >adli ,! leniors to register as soon as pos able during the pre-registration 'eriod in order for them to get Murses needed to graduate. Lacey released the following 'chedule for the spring semester. —Pre-registration, weekdays, 8 Un.-noon, 1-5 p.m. —Delayed registration, week days, Jan. 26-30, 8-noon, 1-5 p.m. —Late registration, weekdays, jeorj p e b. 2-6, 8-noon, 1-5 p.m. University National Bank “On the side of Texas A&M.” —A4v. —Spring semester classes be gin Monday, Feb. 2. Each student must visit with his major department during pre registration to obtain his regis tration card packet and to sched ule a meeting with his registra tion advisor for pre-registration counseling, Lacey explained. Identification cards will be re quired in order to obtain the registration card packet. The registrar said all students must secure a fee data card from a Housing Office representative. All day students, civilians and cadets, must report to the Leg gett Hall Lounge for the fee data card. Cadets in the Duncan area will report to the Corps guardroom. Civilian students report to the following areas: —Lounge C office, between Walton and Schuhmacher — Re tard, Milner, Schuhmacher and Walton Halls, Vol. 65 No. 40 College Station, Texas Thursday, November 20, 1969 Telephone 845-2226 A&M, TU Note StandingPolicy On Vandalism Texas A&M and University of Texas at Austin officials issued a reminder Tuesday that students will be suspended for committing acts of vandalism on the campus of the rival school. The long-standing policy agree ment between the UT regents and A&M board of directors was re emphasized as students at both universities prepare for their annual Thanksgiving Day football game, to be held here this year. The joint statement by A&M President Earl Rudder and UT- Austin President Norman Hacker- man pointed out that a student “who goes to another campus with the intent to paint or other wise deface statues, buildings or other property or to commit any act of vandalism” will be sus pended for at least one semester. “Fortunately, in recent years such misconceived enthusiasm has been infrequent,” the two presi dents agreed. RAINMAKER Something about a hole and timber on the Duncan Hall drill field at Texas A&M causes rain. The 105-foot centerpole for the annual Thanksgiving football game bon fire went up Wednesday under the direction of company D-l (Spider D) after a two- day rain delay. Yell leaders believe the conical stack of logs will be the biggest ever, despite almost three inches of rain that slowed the start of construction. Core logs were trucked in Wednesday and stacking in earnest begins Saturday. The symbolic flame will bum Wednesday. (Photo by V. L. Scott) WEATHER Friday — Partly cloudy. Wind South 10 to 15 m.p.h. High 68, low 39. Saturday — Partly cloudy to cloudy. Wind South 10 to 20 m.p.h. High 71, low 47. JYfay Set Up Black Student Committee Again A&M Blacks to Organize Today By Gary Mayfield Battalion Staff Writer Seven black students were scheduled to gather at 4 p.m. today with Howard Perry, direc tor of civilian student affairs, to organize a 1969-70 Black Student Committee. mittee because the members did not exercise good judgment in leading the Afro-American So ciety, an off-campus organization of A&M black students which issued written demands to A&M resident Earl Rudder concerning extra black benefits. —Lounge A-2 office, north end of Hughes Hall — Moses Hall. —Lounge B office, between Moore and Crocker — Crocker, Davis-Gary, Mclnnis and Moore Halls. —Lounge A-l office, south end of Hughes Hall — Fowler, Hen derson, Hughes, Keathley and Leggett Halls. —Puryear Lounge — Hart, Law, Mitchell and Puryear Halls. Registration card packet and the fee date card should then be taken to the registration head quarters, Room 001, YMCA. Lacey said fee statements will be mailed to the student’s local mailing address about Dec. 15. All feets must be paid by Jan. 9, or the student’s pre-registration will be subject to cancellation, he added. After the fees have been paid, the student’s class schedule will be forwarded to the local mail ing address. This same group met last week with Perry and exchanged ideas for a possible organizational con ference for a Black Student Com mittee. The University’s Execu tive committee had previously sent letters to each of them, encourag ing support for linking the ad ministration with the problems of black students. Among those involved is Allen Giles, chairman of the Afro- American Society. The other six are Nokomis (Butch) Jackson, Shelton Wallace, Frederick Kay, Raymond Hart, Marvin Taylor, and Isaiah Thompson. Today’s organizational meeting should determine the future status of the committee, according to Jackson, who is also Election Commission chairman for the Stu dent Senate. He predicted that the students will decide whether or not they want to continue with the committee and if so, map out a plan for immediate action. This attempt in coordinating a Black Student Committee is, ac cording to Perry, a revamping of the committee which began last March and virtually vanished by the end of May. Organized by Edwin Cooper, former director of civilian student activities, the Committee on Black Student Affairs was aimed primarily at reaching an understanding be tween the administration and the university’s black students. Cooper told The Battalion in a recent interview that he was disappointed in last year’s com- A group of 15 black students last May, according to a written statement from the President’s office, submitted the list of de mands in a two-hour conference with the President. The demands called for more black literature in the library, employing of black professors and Negro-oriented studies, more recruiting of black athletes, recruiting of black high school students by blacks already in A&M. The demands drew a resolution of criticism from the A&M Stu dent Senate, which said the black student group did not further its complaints through Senate chan nels and also they did not contact the administration through the Committee on Black Student Affairs. “We went directly to the ad ministration because we felt the bonds of communication had been cut,” Giles commented. “They can only hurt their chances by pushing things too hard and too fast,” Dean of Stu dents James P. Hannigan said. In an attempt to rebuild the committee which they believe could be successful in helping the administration better understand the problems facing the blacks, both Hannigan and Perry are advocating its formal organiza tion, which will meet university requirements for on - campus status. The Afro-American Society, de nied official on-campus recogni- (See Black Students, page 2) Carman Will Talk Tonight On Congressiona l Programs California Congressman James C. Corman will speak here to night on Congress’ welfare and tax programs. The 8 p.m. presentation in the Memorial Student Center Ball room will mark the legislator’s second visit to A&M, announced Thomas C. Fitzhugh, Great Is sues chairman of Waco. To enhance student involve ment, a residence hall and corps unit will host the speaker, Fitz hugh added. Keathly Hall and Gary Mauro, hall president of Dallas, w^ill host Congressman Corman at an informal recep tion before the program. Com pany K-l, commanded by Dennis Garbis of Falls Church, Va., will participate in a reception after the presentation. Fitzhugh noted admission to the Great Issues presentation is free but that subscriptions to support Great Issues are solic ited. Congresssman Corman keynot ed last December the Black Amer ica Seminar conducted by Great Issues. pointed by the speaker to the Select Committee to investigate the conduct of Rep.-elect Adam Clayton Powell. Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, the 49- year-old Democrat of Van Nuys, Calif., was elected to his first term in 1960 and has been re turned to the House in the 88th, 89th, 90th and 91st Congresses. Corman chairs the govern ment procurement and economic concentration subcommittee of the House Select Committee on Small Business. The Democratic Steering Committee member was appointed by the president to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and was ap- Corman, a reserve lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, is a 1942 UCLA graduate and com pleted work at the University of Southern California Law School in 1948. He practiced law eight years and for woyk in the courts and many civic organizations of which he is member, Corman re ceived the 1964 Human Rights Award for “outstanding service in fostering goodwill and under standing among religious and racial groups.” Bryan Building & Loan Association. Your Sav ing Center, since 1919. BB&L -Adv.