Monday, August 31,1987^The Battalion/Page 13A
131,11-
pHew booster rocket for shuttle
^undergoes full-scale test-firing
RIGHAM CITY, Utah (AP) —A
Hlesigned space shuttle booster
lipcet roared into life in its first full-
— Thel scale test-firing Sunday, a successful
ressurel and crucial step before the planned
by the renewal of shuttle missions next
day to a June.
vi, a Bit- ■The 126-foot-long solid fuel
led asIsr-rocket blasted orange flame 500 feet
and a thick cloud of smoke boiled
3wedit: 1,500 feet into the sky above Morton
was IhThiokol Inc.’s desert test site 25
Hes west of here as 9,500 specta-
ed nestitors watched.
i p ro jw before the solid fuel boosters are
cernedcertified and the shuttles are allowed
to fly again, officials have decided
mon Pen that the redesigned booster must be
'sed amtes!-fired at least four times on the
ister fa ground.
the Calc ||Adm. Richard Truly, the National
vote,. Aeronautics and Space Administra-
avi alive tion associate administrator for
rs pregspau' flight, said the test-firing
naArbeibreathed new hope into the nation’s
ier than spare program, which has been
oject, at grounded since Jan. 28, 1986, when
■ explosion destroyed the shuttle
Challenger, killing its seven-member
wept a crew.
stations A presidential commission later
■med the disaster on a faulty seal
setbadin the booster rocket that allowed
t Shamii hot exhaust gasses out the side of the
3c. Part':rocket, igniting Challenger’s exter-
projecunal liquid fuel tank. NASA officials
a Libdihope the new design has eliminated
that Haw.
o a blov; sfl feel good about what we saw,
year am but the proof of this pudding will
ing free conic in the next few days” after en-
:ts, indawheers have had a chance to analyze
n, in icthe results, he said.
“This first demonstration of this
series of (full-scale) tests will mean
that we don’t have to change direc
tion, that’s the important thing,”
Truly said. “It will prove that in fact
the track we’re on is the right track.”
Allan McDonald, director of Mor
ton Thiokol’s solid rocket motor
redesign team, said, “We’re absolu-
that we have the ability to do what
we need to do if we just put effort
into it. I think this is going to be the
thing that gets us back on-line with
the shuttle program.”
In all, seven such test-firings are
planned, four of them before the
scheduled resumption of shuttle
missions on June 2, 1988. By com-
“This First demonstration . . . will mean that we don’t
have to change direction, that’s the important thing.
‘ —Adm. Richard Truly
tely elated about what we’ve seen to
day.”
Following the test, engineers ap
proached within 50 feet of the still-
hot booster rocket and scanned it
with binoculars. McDonald and John
Thomas, head of NASA’s booster
rocket design team, said all of the
rocket’s systems appeared to have
operated as expected.
The rocket used up 1 million
pounds of propellant during the
two-minute test, consuming it at a
9,000-pound-per-second pace, com
pany spokesman Rocky Raab said.
Carver Kennedy, Morton Thio
kol’s vice president for space pro
grams, said, “It obviously ran the
right amount of time. The plume
ran normal, it appears to be a nor
mal, successful test.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, one of
hundreds who watched the test, said,
“These people showed once again
parison, Raab said, 11 test-firings
were conducted for the booster used
before Challenger exploded.
In addition to the full-scale exper
iments, Morton Thiokol has con
ducted hundreds of smaller-scale
tests.
The test of the booster was origi
nally scheduled last Thursday, but
was aborted three times by test
equipment failures.
John Taylor, spokesman for the
Marshall Space Center in Huntsville,
Ala., told reporters Sunday that the
first abort, caused by the failure of a
water line for a cooling system, led to
the two subsequent delays involving
computer problems that occurred
when engineers tried to reset the
countdown.
“The abort . . . created these
ground-support problems where the
computers were out of sequence,”
Taylor said.
Thursday’s first attempt at a test
firing was halted 10 seconds before
ignition when a water main broke.
Water was to be used to cool the
rocket casing after firing.
The second countdown ended
three minutes from ignition when a
computer detected instrument read
ings that Thomas said “looked
strange to us.”
A final attempt Thursday was
stopped 12 seconds from ignition
because of computer problems.
The inquiry into the Challenger
disaster blamed a joint in a Thiokol
booster that leaked superheated ex
haust gases out the side of the
rocket, igniting the contents of the
external liquid fuel tank for the shut
tle’s main engines.
NASA and Thiokol are spending
$400 million to redesign the rocket
and the joints between segments to
ensure that such a leak doesn’t hap
pen again.
The new joint between the rocket
nozzle and the body of the booster
includes 100 additional bolts, adhesi
vely bonded insulation to replace
putty used previously, a pressure re
lief slot and a third rubber-like CD-
ring gasket.
In the old design, pressure from
the violently burning fuel could
force the joint apart and the hot
gases could burn through the O-
rings.
joint has previously been
~ firii
The joint has
tested in very brief firings, including
a six-second firing earlier this month
in which the joint held in spite of
flaws intentionally built in as a test.
Lee Marvin, ‘tough guy’ movie great,
dies at 63 of heart attack in Arizona
i of 5,1
)f Israel
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InIera @ UCSON ’ Ariz - ( AP ) — Oscar-
ited IB-winning actor Lee Marvin, a gravel-
ders 4v0ttt‘(l World War II Marine who
mmertiwerit on to star as the consummate
el. tough guy in films like “The Man
Bo Shot Liberty Valance” and
iployeeiHne Dirty Dozen,” has died at the
office:, age of 63.
ihoutinjr Marvin, who also played an un-
Hebre wanted role in a historic “palimony”
rians suit, died of a heart attack Saturday
at Tucson Medical Center.
;s Israel Marvin’s third wife and childhood
earinmesweetheart, Pamela Feeley, was at his
bedside when he died, Tucson Medi
cal Center spokesman Tom Reavis
said.
Marvin had been hospitalized
IUv Bite Aug. 13 with a run-down con
dition related to the flu.
iflMl Ernest Borgnine, who starred
with Marvin in “Bad Day at Black
Roc k’’ in 1954 and “Emperor of the
i|in North Pole” in 1973, wept when told
* ofMarvin’s death.
K‘We always had a great respect for
_ r each other,” he said.
J r ,J®We loved each other.
n . u *r The old rascal never let on, but
'■‘fVwasasofty.
iHe knew I knew that.
^ “I will miss him.”
Lee Marvin
Last December, Marvin had intes
tinal surgery after suffering abdomi
nal pains while at his ranch near
Tucson.
Hospital spokesmen said then
there was an inflammation of the
colon.
But no malignancy was found.
After fighting in the Pacific dur
ing the war, Marvin fell into acting
by chance while working as a plumb
er’s assistant.
He landed a small role in “You’re
In The Navy Now” in 1951.
He established himself in the
1950s and 1960s as a menacing fig
ure, ever brandishing a gun and a
mean expression.
Marvin’s best-known tough-guy
roles were in such films as “The
Dirty Dozen,” “The Man Who Shot
Liberty Valance,” “The Big Red
One,” “Donovan’s Reef,” and “Prime
Cut.”
His television series “M Squad”
ran for three years beginning in
1958.
Marvin won an Academy Award
as a double character in his role as a
drunken gunfighter and his evil twin
in “Cat Ballou,” the 1965 western
parody which also starred Jane
Fonda.
President Reagan, who co-starred
with Marvin in the 1963 movie “The
Killers,” and his wife, Nancy, ex
tended their sympathies to Marvin’s
family and friends.
The president and Mrs. Reagan
are vacationing in Santa Barbara,
Calif.
In 1979, Marvin made headlines
in a landmark “palimony” case when
he was sued for half his fortune by
his former live-in girlfriend, Mich
elle Triola.
She legally changed her last name
to Marvin.
Her right to sue was upheld but
her claim was ultimately rejected,
though the actor was ordered to pay
her a nominal sum for rehabilita
tion.
In 1984, after marrying for a
third time, Marvin moved to his
Tucson ranch.
“There is going to be a very small,
private funeral in Tucson,” his pub
licist, Paul Wasserman, said Sunday
in Los Angeles.
A public memorial service will be
held in Hollywood within two weeks,
he said.
rights activists predict fights
court over new legislation proposals
:harged
after tlit!
ran an 6
id had®
jom, m,
and ntitj
sixth *11$
It based: "WASHINGTON (AP) — The
providsRSagan administration’s proposed
Ipes to cut federal money for abor-
led direction counseling won applause Sun-
it. It said day from abortion opponents, but
rst couittabortion rights activists predicted
apons it the regulations will be fought in the
courts.
erusalem “The representatives of the repro-
in oneoiductive rights community are ready
rrivedai 10 litigate the minute these regula-
dotvspdions go into effect,” said Jennifer
•apedoviBer, legal coordinator for the Na
an toktdional Abortion Rights Action
inumt. League,
dows'!
id radio Pizer charged the administration’s
were rtsintent “is basically to shut off all in-
yreasoffiformation about abortions.”
, ,r On Saturday, the Department of
prisontj
Min'
ihen lit
family si
eli ai
Health and Human Services un
veiled the proposed rules, which one
official said were designed to “build
a high wall” between abortion clinics
and federally funded family plan
ning programs.
Under the proposals, family plan
ning clinics that receive federal
funds — but carry out abortions with
private funds — would be required
to keep the two functions totally
apart by such means as separate en
trances, examination rooms and
medical and financial records.
The proposals were outlined in a
policy announced last month by
President Reagan. They will be pub
lished Tuesday in the Federal Regis
ter and spell out how the depart
ment would revise Title X of the
Public Health Act.
Last month, Reagan directed
HHS Secretary Otis Bowen to elimi
nate all Title X language that re
quires recipients of federal funds to
suggest abortion as an alternative for
pregnant women.
Following a 60-day comment pe
riod, the department analyzes the
comment and usually issues final
regulations.
Joseph Scheidler, executive direc
tor of the Chicago-based Pro-Life
Action League, praised the pro
posed regulations as signs of a move
toward a ban on federal funding for
all family planning services.
“I think it’s a good start that they
are separating abortion completely
from other quote-unquote services,”
Scheidler said. “But we won’t be
really happy until all tax money is
withdrawn from these services alto
gether.
“If people want to pay for that
stuff, that should be their business
but it shouldn’t be with our money.”
Phyllis Schlafly, president of the
conservative Eagle Forum, said the
proposed regulations were a good
idea.
“I think the American people and
Congress do not want to fund abor
tions in any way,” Schlafly said in a
telephone interview from her home
in Alton, Ill. “I think these regula
tions are long overdue.”
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