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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
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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.”
★ ★ ★
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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
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Right on schedule, at 9:26 a.m.
a burst from the engine
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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)
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Will Be Held Next Month
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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.