Shuttle to be modified
before Spacelab mission
THE EiAOTM " PART 1 Of 3
United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
The veteran shuttle Columbia
faces an eight-month overhaul
at the Kennedy Space Center
and when it flies again it will car
ry the billion-dollar Spacelab, an
orbiting research center.
Spacelab, a joint venture of
the 11-nation European Space
Agency and NASA, is scheduled
to ride in Columbia’s cargo bay
for nine days starting Oct. 30. It
will be the most ambitious scien
tific laboratory ever to orbit the
Earth.
A crew of six on that mission
— the commander and pilot,
two mission specialists and two
payload specialists, non
astronaut scientists — will oper
ate a wide variety of sophisti
cated experiments.
Spacelab, which has a 23-
foot-long manned module and a
10-foot-long instrument pallet,
was designed and built by ESA at
a cost of about $1 billion. Tech
nicians at NASA’s Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsvil
le, Ala., are directing the Space
lab mission.
The experiments planned
for Spacelab 1 — the ninth shut
tle mission — include atmos
pheric physics, material proces
sing, space plasma physics, biol
ogy, astronomy and solar phy
sics.
Eight months of modifica
tions are planned for the Col
umbia so that it will be able to
handle Spacelab and the record
six-man crew that will work its
instruments around the clock.
Percy Baynes, acting director
of orbiter program for NASA,
said other modifications for the
Columbia include strengthen
ing all the orbiter’s fragile heat-
resistant tiles, installing six-man
crew accomodations and rewir
ing 100 instruments and gauges
on the flight deck.
The Columbia was originally
scheduled to undergo the mod
ifications at an assembly plant in
Palmdale, Calif., but it was
changed to the Florida space
center in a time-saving move.
Baynes said if the modifica
tions were done at Palmdale, it
would probably delay delivery
of the Discovery, the third shut-
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tie, which is scheduled to arrive
at the Kennedy Space Center
next September.
Baynes said modifications
that can not be completed at the
Cape will be done at Palmdale,
but no date has been set.
Roger Gaskins, division chief
for Spacelab at the Kennedy
Space Center, said all the experi
ments and instruments have
been tested and the lab’s systems
will be turned on Jan. 21 after
technicians lay the floor and in
stall dozens of racks.
The laboratory, which has
been at the spaceport since last
December, is scheduled to be in
stalled in Columbia’s cargo bay
on Aug. 3.
Other than a few pieces of
equipment that were damaged
or broken in shipping, Gaskins
said, work on Spacelab has gone
well.
“We have a 25-man Euro
pean team helping us and they
have been worth their weight in
gold,” he said. “Thanks to them,
we’re right on schedule and we
shouldn’t have any trouble in in
stalling it in the orbiter on time.”
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SOILING HOT FLASK ON.
Minority
(continued from page 1)
Director Loyd Taylor is in
volved in recruiting qualified
minority students and adminis
tering scholarship money ear
marked for minorities.
The scholarships help recruit
about 50 black or Hispanic stu
dents every year, he said.
“I am pleased with the results
we have had, compared to the
dollars put into the program ...
but the most important factor to
consider is our retention rate,”
Taylor said.
“That is, we estimate we will
have at least 70 percent of the
black and Hispanic students
who come here through our
scholarships eventually receive a
degree from Texas A&M.
“We are working to recruit
students who can be successful,
not just in increasing the num
bers. If we had 1,000 black stu
dents and 600 flunked out, what
good would that be for anyone?”
But if the University is going
to increase the black and Hispa
nic enrollment significantly,
more money is needed, Taylor
said.
Other universities are spend
ing more money. For example,
the University of Texas budgets
money for 1,225 undergraduate
minority scholarships, com
pared to Texas A&M’s 200.
Kelsel Thompson, a black
Former Black Panther Leader
ELDRIDGE
CLEAVER
senior engineering technology
major at Texas A&M, said many
black students can’t go to college
if they don’t receive financial
assistance. Many black students
go where they receive the most
money, she said. The more
money a school provides, the
better the chance that a black
student will complete school,
Thompson said.
Another way to recruit more
black students is for the Univer
sity to recruit more black faculty
members, she said. The lack of
black faculty members makes it
difficult for some black students
to find someone to turn to for
advice, she said.
Texas A&M also needs to im
plement a minority affairs office
— headed by a black, she said.
“If they really wanted to re
cruit black faculty — rather than
just needing them because the
governmment said so — they
could do it,” Thompson said.
There are 11 black faculty
members at Texas A&M — ab
out 0.5 percent of the total fa
culty.
Hispanic students Pedro
Rocha, a sophomore English
major, and John P. Lopez, a
junior journalism major, do not
see prejudice towards minority
students as a big problem.
Rocha said it is a mam
attitude.
“I never act like I expecl
treated differently, so k
usually don’t treat mediftas
ly,” Rocha said.
Lopez said: “It’s better
laugh off people who are
judiced.”
It is impossible to trytore;
with closed-minded individi
he said.
The University appearsttl
trying to accomodate mini
students, but it will lake
Lopez said.
“They just got a late start,
said. “It has nothing todo
the school or the people win
here.
“I don’t sit in the back oil
classroom — I am no diffen
f rom any other Aggie.”
y Kubia
ept him on
Riven
(near upse
But Kevin D. Johnson,aHi
junior mechanical engineet
major from Houston, s
others do not quite accepthk
he is.
“When I first came to It®
A&M, and I didn’t knowr
people, 1 believed all this aid
being a Texas Aggie, but™
realized they accepted metj
rently.
“I am accepted as an Aj
but a different type of/
Author of “Soul on Ice
Speaks on
AMERICA’S FUTURE &
THE WORLD REVOLUTION
DIETING?
Topics include: Reaganomics, The Crisis of Capitalism, America and
South Africa, Poland, Terrorism and Violence
DATE: DEC. 6, 1982
TIME: 7:30 P.M.
PLACE: RUDDER 701
Sponsored by
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Q. & A. after talk
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