TKeBattalion
/ol. 82 No. 170 GSPS 045360 6 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, July 2, 1986
ummit
lanning
iay start
Soviets seek
ialk renewal
MOSCOW (AP) — The Soviet
jpaion, which had canceled pre
rations for another Reagan-
jrbachev summit, has proposed
that they be resumed, a senior of-
Icial said Tuesday.
I It was the first public step by
tlte Soviets toward scheduling the
next summit since they called off
a preparatory meeting between
Foreign Minister Eduard A. She-
Irdnadze and Secretary of State
fceorge P. Shultz after the April
U5 U.S. bombing raids on Libya.
I Vladimir F. Petrovsky, deputy
mreign minister, told a news con-
fcrence that diplomatic contacts
Lwere under way for a new meet
ing between Shevardnadze and
Ihultz, but he made clear that the
ivo sides were far from setting a
late for a second summit be
tween President Reagan and So
lid leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
At their first summit last No
ember in Geneva, Reagan and
torbachev agreed to meet again
nisyear in the United States.
In Washington, White House
Ipokesman Larry Speakes wel-
pmed Petrovsky’s statement and
laid the United States hopes it in
dicates “a willingness on (the part
|f) the Soviet Union to move for
ward to preparations for a sum-
nit, which we would like to have.”
We are certainly ready for
Inch a meeting between the secre-
ary and the foreign minister, but
here has been no specific date set
or such a meeting,” he said.
Petrovsky said the Shultz-She-
ardnadze meeting hinges on
:hances of “tangible” progress in
irms control.
South African mineworkers plan protest
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(AP) — A bomb blast injured six
women and two girls at a downtown
bus stop Tuesday. Elsewhere in Jo
hannesburg, leaders of the black
mineworkers’ union voted to protest
the detentions of colleagues by stag
ing disruptive actions.
The mineworkers’ move could af
fect the output of the world’s largest
gold-producing nation.
The nation’s largest labor feder
ation, the mostly black Congress of
South African Trade Unions, said
Tuesday its executive committee
drafted a plan for a nationwide ac
tion to protest the detentions and
other effects of the state of emer
gency.
The federation includes the min
ers’ union. A spokesman said local
affiliates would be consulted about
the plan. He said the proposed pro
test might be scheduled for July 14,
but no final decision on details had
been made.
Tuesday’s bomb explosion, across
from 50-story Carlton Center office
tower, the nation’s tallest building,
was the 10th in South Africa since a
state of emergency was imposed
June 12. The blasts killed three peo
ple and injured 98.
Injured Tuesday were five white
women, a black woman and two
white children — a 2-week-old baby,
reported badly hurt, and a 3-year-
old, slightly injured.
The government blamed the
bombing on the outlawed African
National Congress. The black guer
rilla organization has refused to con
firm or deny responsibility for any
recent explosions.
Also Tuesday, police commanders
in four regions banned several anti
apartheid groups from holding
meetings. The orders extend an
existing ban on outdoor rallies to in
clude indoor meetings and affect
such groups as the United Demo
cratic Front, the country’s largest
anti-apartheid coalition.
The ban affects districts of eastern
Cape Province, southwest Cape
Province, northern Orange Free
State, and the Eas Rand area directly
east of Johannesburg.
The latest bombing came a week
after explosions at a fast food restau
rant and a hotel in Johannesburg in
jured 19 people.
Bureau for Information spokes
man Leon Mellet said the blast was
“in line with the adopted policy of
the ANC of indiscriminate attacks.”
Police said the bomb was placed in
a garbage can. A motorcycle shop
was wrecked, and windows were
shattered.
Witnesses said one woman was sit
ting at the stop, her baby next to her
in a stroller. She leaped up, blood
pouring down her face, a witness
said.
Early Tuesday in Johannesburg,
at the close of a five-hour meeting,
leaders of the National Union of
Mineworkers voted to launch dis
ruptive actions to protest the state-
of-emergency detentions of 10 se
nior union officials.
The action followed detention of
a mineworkers’ union vice president
who also is president of the Congress
of South African Trade Unions.
The union represents nearly half
the country’s 550,000 black miners.
Team of engineers suggests
escape system for shuttle
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)
— A team of engineers has recom
mended that NASA install a space
shuttle bail-out system so astronauts
can escape during a low-altitude
emergency. But the group found no
way to save lives in an accident like
the one that destroyed Challenger.
A crew wearing special suits and
breathing oxygen could use par
achutes when the spacecraft is mov
ing at low velocity below 100,000
feet in gliding flight, A1 Louviere,
head of the team that studied possi
ble astronaut escape systems, said in
an interview Tuesday.
But Louviere, a Johnson Space
Center engineer, said the team’s six-
week study discovered no system
that would have provided an escape
for the seven crew members who
died when Challenger exploded and
broke apart 73 seconds after launch
on Jan. 28.
“It would have been very difficult
to understand that you had a prob
lem and then react to it,” Louviere
said. “It was very, very quick. We’re
talking about a second or two. I
don’t know what you would have
done.”
He said a bail-out system could be
designed to give astronauts a chance
to survive an emergency that oc
curred during gliding flight, after
the solid fuel booster rockets were
separated from the spacecraft.
The system could be as simple as
having the astronauts jump from the
shuttle with parachutes at a low alti
tude, or as complex as using rockets
to extract crew members who wear
fireproof , pressure suits, breathe ox
ygen and ride down on heat-resis
tant parachutes.
Louviere said none of the con
cepts studied provided perfect solu
tions.
“There’s not a good answer,” he
said. “The system we had, if we can
get it to work right, is probably the
right one — to let people go back
and fly like a passenger airline.”
Whether Astronauts could survive
a water landing was uncertain, so the
group recommended some type of
bail-out system, said Louviere.
None of the systems would be
practical for escaping while the
launch rockets are thrusting, mean
ing the astronauts would have to
wait for the solid rockets to burn out
and separate, said the engineer. The
shuttle then would descend to a
lower altitude and slower speed be
fore the astronauts bailed out.
The bail-out system, depending
on its complexity, would cost “tens of
millions,” said Louviere, and could
be ready within 18 months.
Louviere said the group studied
and rejected expensive plans such as
ejection seats; a system that would
separate the entire crew cabin from
the shuttle; and a mixed system us
ing a pressurized tank in the cargo
bay and ejection seats.
The pressurized tank would be
ejected and descend by parachute.
These systems, he said, would cost
“hundreds of millions” and would
add weight and penalize spacecraft
performance. They also would take
about two years to design and build
into the shuttle, he said.
Police cite economy as cause
B-CS crime increases sharply
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Staff Writer
Bryan and College Station police
statistics show that 1986 has seen
[harp increases in a number of crim-
al activities and police cite the fail-
g economy and increased prisoner
pleases by the Texas Department of
Corrections as possible causes.
Texas A&M has avoided this in
ease in criminal activity to a large
extent, with University Police re
cords showing only small increases
in most theft and burglary catago-
;s. For example, misdemeanor
eft rose from 652 for the 1984-
1^85 academic year to 666 for 1985-
1086.
if Felonious theft and motor vehicle
break-ins actually declined slightly
from the 1984-1985 academic year
Jthe 1985-1986 year.
Sgt. Choya Walling of the Bryan
Police Department attributes the
higher crime rates to the unusually
Jrge numbers of convicts the Texas
department of Corrections has re-
Local crime statistic comparison
Comparing statistics for Jan
uary through May of 1985 to the
same period in 1986, the follow
ing increases were noteworthy:
COLLEGE STATION —
• A 33 percent increase in
thefts. Reported thefts in College
Station rose from 693 to 920.
• A 24 percent increase in mo
tor vehicle thefts. Reported mo
tor vehicle thefts rose from 37 to
46.
BRYAN —
• Robberies rose 73 percent
from 19 to 33.
• Residential burglaries rose
48 percent from 235 to 347.
• Motor vehicle break-ins rose
45 percent from 142 to 206.
• Thefts rose 12 percent from
878 to 989..
• Aggravated assaut rose 31
percent from 108 to 140.
Theft — removal of property
without breaking and entering a
building.
Burglary — unlawful entry and
removal of property from an
unoccupied building or motor ve
hicle.
Robbery — unlawful entry and
removal of property from an oc
cupied building.
leased from prison in recent months
on parole or early release.
Charles Brown, Assistant Director
for Public Information at the Texas
Department of Corrections in Hunt
sville reports that the number of
convicts released by the TDC has in
creased from 15,632 for January
through May ol 1985 to 18,421 for
the same period this year.
The number of paroled convicts
and prisoners under mandatory su
pervision now living in Brazos
County has shown a modest increase
over last year, rising from 164 in Au
gust 1985 to 199 in April of this
year, says Robert Papscott, Informa
tion Officer of the Board of Pardons
and Paroles in Austin.
A prisoner released early for good
behavior remains under manditory
supervision for the remainder of his
original sentence, Papscott says.
Cpl. David Luedke of the College
Station Police Department attributes
the increases in theft and burglary in
good part to the downturn in the lo
cal economy and higher unemploy
ment in the area.
Luedke says most thefts and bur
glaries are “opportunist” crimes,
meaning that an unlocked door or
unguarded property invites some
one on the lookout for such oppor
tunities to commit the crime.
Festival Bound
Photo by Anthony S. Casper
Cindy Foster, a member of the Texas A&M women’s softball team,
trains for her tryout for the Olympic Games Festival women’s softball
team. Foster’s training regimen includes running the bleachers at
Kyle Field, bicycling, running and swimming.
Comanche Peak safety record questioned
DALLAS (AP) — A federal licens
ing panel has ordered officials at the
|omanche Peak nuclear plant to an
swer questions about the history of
safety problems at the plant, indicat-
ig the construction permit may be
suspended if the answers are not
jrovided promptly.
In a separate memorandum, the
aard, which oversees construction
at the plant, raised concerns about a
$120 million reinspection of the
plant in progress.
The U.S. Atomic Safety and Li
censing Board made public the doc
uments Monday.
Texas Utilities spokesman Dick
Ramsey said, “Certainly, we’re trying
to determine what we need to do in
Smithsonian to get winner
of largest roach contest
DALLAS (AP) — A Texas
roach contest has piqued the in
terest of officials at the Smithso
nian Institution, who have re
quested first shot at the burly
champion for an entomological
exhibit.
“He’s going to loan it to us for a
while,” said Sally Love, curator of
the insect zoo at the Smithsonian
in Washington, D.C.
The winner of the “Largest
Cockroach” contest, which carries
a $1,000 grand prize, will have to
size up to more than 200 of its kin
entered before the deadline Mon
day, said sponsor Michael Boh-
dan of The Pest Shop-Bizzy Bees
Pest Control Co. in Dallas.
Love said the zoo already has
about four species of cock
roaches, but she was interested in
the contest winner because of
Texas’ reputation for producing
bigger and better breeds.
terms of time and resources to com
ply with the order.”
The memorandum says, “We are
not at this time assured that (the util
ity) will examine in the proper depth
the design, design control and tech
nical difficulties that have affected
their plant and their conduct in
these proceedings,” the board said.
Ramsey said, “We’re just in the
middle of that program. Certainly
the concerns that the board ex
presses at this point give us an op
portunity to look at the program and
see if any adjustments need to be
made.”
The order demanding responses
to safety history is part of a legal ex
change of information required for
preparation of a hearing on whether
the utility had good cause for not
completing construction of Unit 1 of
the twin reactor nuclear project by
Aug. 1, 1985, when the construction
permit expired.
Construction continued on the re
actor for six months after the permit
expired. Because the unit is almost
complete, a federal licensing panel is
trying to decide the issue before the
plant is finished.
Peter Bloch, chairman of the U.S.
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board,
wrote in the order, “Our only tool
for preventing the case from becom
ing moot will be to suspend the con
struction license for failure to com
ply promptly with discovery needs.”
Crash of experimental airship kills 1
LAKEHURST, NJ. (AP) — An
experimental 343-foot-long airship
made from a blimp and parts of four
helicopters caught fire and crashed
Tuesoay while on a test flight at a
Naval center here, killing one of five
crew members aboard.
The aircraft, known as the Heli-
Stat, crashed at 7 p.m. at the U.S.
Naval Air Engineering Center,
three-quarters of a mile from where
the Hindenburg disaster occurred
49 years ago, said Nick Grand, pub
lic information officer at the center.
The four survivors were not se
riously hurt, said Grand, who con
firmed the death.
The Heli-Stat was hovering and
tilted backward when the rear heli
copter caught fire, said Mike DeS-
tanko, a civilian member of the
Lakehurst Navy Flying Club.
“Two back helicopters looked like
they were totally on fire and there’s a
crewman in every one,” DeStanko
said.
“It was just hovering for one of
their test flights and it looked like it
just tilted and caught on fire,” he
said.
The Heli-Stat was designed to be
used for timber harvesting in remote
areas, but a congressional report in
1982 questioned its practical applica
tions, said its costs could top $40 mil
lion, and cited structural problems
with the aircraft.
Chuck Peterson, who witnessed
the crash, said the ship appeared to
have just taken off and was about 10
feet in the air when it burst into
flames.
“It just burst right in the air,” said
Peterson, a Navy petty officer sta
tioned at the center. “I couldn’t be
lieve it. Flames flew.
“The next thing I knew, there was
fire trucks and ambulances running
out there,” said Peterson, who about
200 yards from the aircraft. “There
was black smoke flying off it. I saw
pieces of it on fire, flying all over.”
The crash occurred near the site
where the German dirigible Hinden
burg caught fire and burned in May
1937, killing 36 people.