Battalion
Serving the Texas A&M University community
, Vol. 74 No. 132
^ 14 Pages in 1 Section
■T
Friday, April 10, 1981
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
The Weather
Today
Tomorrow
High
. . 85 High
86
Low
68
Chance of rain.
. . . 20%
[•Problems delay
shuttle launch
3
I
United Press International
APE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A puz-
g problem in the space shuttle’s vital
tronie brains today forced a prob-
Ip two-day delay in the launch of
onauts John W. Young and Robert
)rippen on the first orbital test flight
:he Columbia.
ji'oung and Crippen spent more than
I hours lying uncomfortably on their
|ks in the shuttle’s cockpit, only to
n that they will have to do it all over
in.
|The problem concerned one of five
nputers in the revolutionary spa-
|hip, the most advanced manned spa-
ihip ever built. The pesky computer
unable to communicate with the
ler computers.
The countdown had come to within
le minutes of blastoff at 6:50 a. m.
IT when the computer problem de-
loped.
Hugh Harris, the launch control
iokesman, said the earliest date the
Rronauts could take off on the shuttle’s
ftiden test flight was 6:50 a. m. Sun-
Say. However, the problem must be
isolved before the ship can be cleared
u takeoff.
I Crew fatigue was the overriding fac
tor in the decision to call off today’s
launch try.
K After engineers in Houston reported
ho joy” in an attempt to clear up the
mputer problem, launch director
eorge Page and Richard Smith, dire-
or of the Kennedy Space Center,
lade the “scrub” decision.
The Columbia is the world’s first
usable spaceship. Its launch had been
it back more than 2 Vi years by a variety
of technical problems. Today’s prob-
ms, however, were of the kind not
[nexpected on a new spacecraft during
ie final hours of the countdown to
nnch.
How are you holding out up there?”
'ageasked the astronauts at one point.
‘Just laying here, you know,” replied
Young, the veteran flight commander
who was strapped on his back in his
pacecraft seat, a position doctors have
said the crew could hold for no more
'jthan six hours.
“Getting uncomfortable at all?’ Page
iked.
“Were getting there, George,”
Young replied after a long pause.
“We’re getting there.”
The Columbia is the first manned
spaceship to rely so heavily oh compu
ters to perform critical operations.
There are four redundant main compu
ters and then the backup which could
take over to perform the most critical
functions if all the other units failed.
The countdown was first held be
cause of a fuel cell generator problem
that turned out to be insignificant. But
there was more concern about the com
puter problem. »
They were the first problems of any
significance in the final hours of the
countdown for the oft-delayed launch of
the winged space freighter.
Young, 50, a veteran of four spacef
lights, and space rookie Crippen, 43,
crawled into Columbia’s two-level cabin
at at 4:19 a. m., after smiling and waving
to space port workers when they left
their quarters.
“You wouldn’t believe all the chow
we have packed on this thing,” Young
said on a communications link to
groundcontrol center shortly after en
tering the spaceship’s lower deck where
the food is stored.
“The crew is in fine shape,” said
George Abbey, director of flight crew
operations. “They had a good rest last
night. We re looking for a real good
flight.”
They are the first Americans to ven
ture into space since 1975, and the first
to fly a space ship not preceded by an
unmanned test flight.
Successful completion of the 54V2-
hour orbital flight will open a new era of
lower cost space travel and increased
space capability. The shuttle will be
come the nation’s orbital workhorse,
hauling civilian and military satellites
regularly to and from orbit.
President Reagan, who before the
attempt on his life had planned to watch
the blastoff in person, said in a message
to Young and Crippen before launch
they carried the “hopes and prayers of
all Americans.”
“Through you, today, we feel as
giants once more,” the president said.
“As you hurtle from Earth in a craft
unlike any other ever constructed, you
will do so in a feat of American technolo
gy and American will.”
The astronauts were to reach a safe
orbit 44 minutes after blastoff and circle
the Earth 36 times, gliding to a landing
at 1:18 p.m. EST Sunday on the broad
expanses of a dry lake bed at Edwards
Air Force Base in Southern California.
lommittee OKs
efense budget
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Senate budget
witers Thursday approved the full
mount President Reagan asked for de-
'ense, but their House counterparts
ipurned administration requests and
pumped more money into food prog
rams and Medicaid.
The Senate Budget Committee,
dominated by Republicans, voted 11-9
to approve $193.9 billion for the 1982
defense budget. Reagan originally-
asked for $188.8 billion, but the Con
gressional Budget Office re-estimated
the request at the higher figure.
The House Budget Committee — in
voice votes that generally fell along par
ity lines — rejected the president’s
proposed cap on federal Medicaid
spending and restored $1.7 billion for
nutrition programs.
The Democratic-controlled commit
tee restored $1.1 billion to Medicaid,
lexplaining in a budget document that
the cap “could result in reduced health
care services to the poor. ”
The House panel also put back $650
million into the food stamp program,
f$800 million into school lunches and
$300 million to fund fully a nutrition
jprogram for pregnant women and in
fants.
Even with the restorations, part of
the Democratic budget alternative
offered by Chairman James Jones, D-
Okla., food stamps and school lunches
will be cut substantially.
In approving the defense figure, the
Senate budget panel defeated an un
usual coalition of two liberal Democrats
and three fiscally conservative Republi
cans — Don Riegle, D-Mich.; Howard
Metzenbaum, D-Ohio; Nancy Kasse-
baum, R-Kan.; William Armstrong, R-
Colo.; and Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn. —
who sought lower amounts for defense.
The panel also quashed a motion by
Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, chairman of
the Senate Armed Services Committee,
to add $500 million to Reagan’s request.
“It would be a terrible thing when
Russian troops are poised on the Polish
border to reduce the president’s
budget,” Tower said.
This country is in enormous military
danger at the moment,” said Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., a
vigorous opponent of cuts in social prog
rams. “Watch the Russians strangle the
freedom of the Polish. This is a time to
tell the president we re behind him on
defense.”
But Armstrong said, “There is no
more serious threat to the defense capa
bility of this country than inflation.” He
said the lower defense figures were
necessary to help balance the budget by
1984, Reagan’s goal.
It was clear the sentiment of the en
tire committee favored increases in de
fense spending. The smallest amount
proposed — $191.6 billion, by Riegle —
was still an increase of $32.2 Million
over President Jimmy Carter’s budget.
The conservative Senate budget
panel decided last week to cut $37 bil
lion from the overall administration
budget, and now is acting on funding for
specific programs.
In the House, Democratic leaders
arranged to meet privately to decide
what defense figures to offer in the
Budget Committee, which their party
dominates. The panel is drafting a
Democratic alternative to the 1982
budget and restoring some of the funds
Reagan wants slashed.
The Senate budget panel, in a break
with Reagan, said Wednesday it pre
dicts a $60 billion budget deficit in 1982
and 1983, and a $51 billion shortfall in
1984. Reagan predicts a $45 billion de
ficit next year, with the budget balanced
by 1984.
The House Budget Committee
Wednesday voted to keep alive several
agencies marked for extinction — the
Legal Services Corporation, which pro
vides legal aid to the poor; the Econo
mic Development Administration and
the National Consumer Cooperative
Bank.
House Speaker Thomas O’Neill, D-
Mass., said Thursday Democrats have
managed so far “to salvage some of the
programs” they support, but he was un
certain whether conservatives would
derail their effort on the House floor.
If accepted in total, the Democratic
package would restore more than $7 bil
lion Reagan wants cut from social prog
rams in fiscal 1982 and would reduce the
defense budget increase Reagan seeks
by $4.3 billion.
Reagan’s budget would slash $48.6
billion from proposed 1982 spending.
Kenneth Ballard, a blind senior psychology major, suffered bruises
after falling into a 10-foot hole, dug to repair pipes, in the sidewalk
in front of the Plant Sciences Building. String was tied around the
hole, but by the time Ballard felt the string he was already falling.
Ironically, Ballard was on his way home Thursday night from speak
ing on problems blind students have on the Texas A&M campus.
74 indictments made in Brazos
Co un ty drug in ves tiga tion
By PHYLLIS HENDERSON
Battalion Staff
Twenty-seven adults and one juvenile were in
dicted for the delivery of controlled substances and
delivery of marijuana by the Brazos County Grand
Jury Thursday.
The grand jury also handed down 46 sealed indict
ments. These indictments are the culmination of an
undercover operation conducted by the Department
of Public Safety Narcotics Service, the Bryan Police
Department, the College Station Police Department
and the Brazos County SherifTs Office during January,
February and March, Sergeant Rick Stewart, with the
DPS Narcotics Service, said Thursday at a news con
ference.
The departments spent approximately $11,300 in
By NANCY FLOECK
Battalion Reporter
If the Corps of Cadets thought their march to the
Brazos was rough, they should have been in Karl
Haupt’s group.
Haupt and 13 other students from Texas A&M
University at Galveston ran from the Texas Clipper to
the Brazos River in conjuction with the Corps March
to the Brazos Saturday. The march is an annual fund
raising event for the March of Dimes.
Haupt, a senior marine science major, said they
reached the Brazos at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, about 25
hours after they left Galveston and an hour before the
Corps arrived.
“No one was there,” he said. “It was a very ungla-
mourous entrance.”
The students ran the 150 or so miles in five-mile
stints; one person ran while the others rode, slept and
the operation, most of which was used in the buying of
these drugs by undercover agents, Stewart said.
The drugs involved in the operation included
cocaine, quaaludes, angel dust, hashish and mari
juana, he said.
Forty people were to be involved in the arrest and
booking of the suspects Thursday night, Stewart said.
Seven 4-man arrest teams were assigned to bring in
three or four defendants each, he said.
“Hopefully, it will go very smoothly,” Stewart said.
“Occasionally you do have people who react violently.
Some of these people do have the potential to hurt
police officers. Hopefully that won’t happen.”
Stewart said the purpose of the investigation was to
deter the narcotics sales in the area and to make the
rested in a University-owned van.
Haupt said they averaged about 13 nine-minute
miles per person.
“One guy ran 22 (miles), but everyone ran their
share,” he said. “Morale for everyone was tremen
dous.”
But the runners’ nerves suffered because of the slow
pace, Haupt said.
However, their nervous energy had some release:
“We got lost on the the Katy-Hockley exit,” he said,
“so that was pretty exciting. ”
Besides some hassle from motorists, Haupt said, the
runners encountered little trouble along the high
ways.
“There was really no problem,” he said. “We car
ried a baton the whole way—that was good for fending
off dogs.”
Once there, the students didn’t participate in the
Corps games, Haupt said. They left, showered and
public aware of the drug problem in the community.
“It’s a very real problem,” Stewart said. “I would
estimate ... 40 to 45 percent usage among the young
people in this community.” He said drug usage had
even reached the junior high school level.
Stewart said the investigation had been able to un
cover some major drug suppliers and drug rings. “I
think there are some major suppliers involved,” he
said. “Three, or possibly four, of these people are
major suppliers in the Brazos County area.
Among the 28 people indicted, Stewart said, there
were probably five or six groups or rings.
Stewart said the result of the indictments will be a
reduction in drug-dealing for a short time. “They’ll
(dealers) remain fearful for a period of time, ” he said.
others run
returned to the Brazos — a little late for some of the
fun.
“We just glimpsed the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders
before they left,” he said.
This is the third year Texas A&M-Galveston stu
dents have made the run. Haupt said only eight out of
about 18 finished the first year.
Haupt said interest and support at the Galveston
campus has grown since then.
“We have a lot of personal support,” he said.
“Everyone wanted to know how everybody did—who
ran how far.”
That support included the University providing the
students with a van, gasoline and excused absences
from classes Friday.
And pledges provided the students with over $400
to donate to the March of Dimes.
Most importantly, Haupt said, it was fun coming to
College Station and visiting and partying with friends.
Some march to Brazos,