Page 4
The Battalion
Friday, October 12,1S|
Ulysses begins
new era
for NASA
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.
(AP) — Shuttle Discovery sailed out of or
bit and landed Wednesday after a four-
day flight that boosted NASA’s confidence
and sent the Ulysses spacecraft on a five-
year mission to explore the sun’s poles.
“If you criticize our mistakes, then you
must also acknowledge our successes,”
space shuttle director and former astro
naut Robert Crippen said after completion
of the first shuttle flight in nearly six
months.
“I’m elated,” he added. “It’s been a long
hot summer, I’ll tell you that. It’s nice to be
back flying again. It is a high day for us.”
About 5,500 spectators cheered as Dis
covery touched down at 8:57 a.m. CDT,
just seconds before the sun rose over hills
to the east. It was the third smallest crowd
for any shuttle landing open to public
viewing.
“Congratulations on a picture-perfect
mission,” Mission Control’s Brian Duffy
told the five astronauts.
The astronauts stepped out of the shut
tle into sunshine an hour after the landing.
About four hours later, shuttle com
mander Dick Richards was given a small
gold model of Ulysses. Then Richards, pi
lot Robert Cabana and mission specialists
Bill Shepherd, Bruce Melnick and Tom
Akers boarded two jets to take them home
to Houston.
About 350 people gathered at Hous
ton’s Ellington Field to cheer their return
home late Wednesday afternoon. The
crowd included about 20 U.S. Coast Guard
members who were there to honor Mel
nick, the first Coast Guard officer to be
come an astronaut.
“It’s great to have America back in space
where we belong,” Cabana said.
Discovery’s 1.7 million-mile flight was
the first since April — the longest gap be
tween shuttle missions since they resumed
after the 1986 explosion that destroyed
Challenger and killed seven crew mem
bers.
The latest flight helped bolster morale
at the National Aeronautics and Space Ad
ministration, which has been plagued by
hydrogen fuel leaks in the shuttles Colum
bia and Atlantis and by a flawed mirror
that severely impaired the $1.5 billion
Hubble Space Telescope.
“Like any great team, occasionally
there’s losing streaks,” Richards said be
fore flying to Houston. “Today is a day we
can say this losing streak is over and we’re
going on to great things in the future.”
The mission wasn’t completely free of
glitches.
Discovery was launched with incorrect
instructions for how it should operate
some of its computer programs, a NASA
official said Wednesday. But the mistake
never posed a threat to the shuttle or its
five-man crew, said Milt Heflin, lead flight
director for the mission.
guards would have prevented problem
even if the crew hadn’t spotted it, he said
But the mistake is considered serioit oMUcti
Heflin said, because “if we erred in soj, t
procedures on the ground, why did wen, ~~\f
catch it?” ^
Six hours after they lifted offfromCap
Canaveral, Fla., on Saturday, Discover
astronauts deployed the Ulysses spacecr?
on its 1.86-billion-mile mission tostudyili
sun’s high latitudes and poles.
The crew noticed the error on a com
puter display screen about an hour after
Discovery was launched Saturday from
Cape Canaveral, Fla., and quickly cor
rected it, Heflin said. Automatic safe
Ulysses “seems to be working perfect;
well,” said Roger Bonnet, director ofsdcc
tific programs for the F.uropean Spu
Agency, which operates the $250 mi!; JA;®
solar explorer in a joint mission tiB
NASA.
Bonnet praised the $750 million r
as “a symbol of future cooperation If.
tween Fturope and the United States."
About an hour before touchdown
covery’s twin braking rockets fired, a
ing the shuttle to plunge out of orbitmj
dash through Earth’s atmosphere
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U.S. joins
in denouncin
Israeli forces
UNITED NATIONS(AF)-H,
Security Council late Wednesd;
agreed on a resolution condemnii
Israeli forces for firing on rod*
throwing Palestinian protesters
Jerusalem and killing 19 of them
formal vote was expected soon.
The United States’decisiontojos
in denouncing Israel outra
ish groups, who flooded the lj
Mission to the United Nationsw»
phone calls.
Diplomats said a compromise
struck by the United States and not
aligned nations on the council, ki
favor the Palestine LiberationOtj
nization.
They said the resolution won
temper criticism of Palestinians!
volved in the confrontation I;
Monday.
In return, the PLO and its alia
on the council gave up their den*
that the Security Council sendtb
members to Jerusalem to investp
Instead, Secretary-General
Perez de Cuellar will send hiscii
saries.
“Our hope is that we will
to take such a proposal, ora
sal like it, to a vote very soonf'U
Ambassador Thomas R. Pickeriu
said.
U.N. officials said an openm»
ing and the vote were expected
follow a 9:30 p.m. CDTWedm
formal pi ivate meeting set by tfe
council.
The PLO earlier had beem
manding that a Security Cound
vestigative mission go tojerusak
a resolution America would veto.
“That’s not a resolution we a
support in there, you all knowthtt
Pickering had said.
A U.S. veto of the resolution inf)
vor of its ally Israel would
driven a wedge between the Unit
States and Arabs who have
together to isolate Iraq for its Aut
invasion and occupation of Kuwait
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and
Arab states say Israel’s occupation
Gaza and the West Bank isjustasoi
rida
pat
ub
Net
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txi
fensive as Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait
Bush agrees
to increase
tax on rich
WASHINGTON (AP) - ft
White House said today Preside
Bush would accept higher taxes*
the wealthiest Americans inatrf
for a deep cut in capital gains rates
Bush’s decision was disclosedafet
two days of confusion over his p nan j, e
tion on taxes and came as CoifS
struggled to cement a $500 bife
deficit reduction package of tax>
creases and spending cuts.
Rep. William Archer, R-Tesi
said that under the plan thetopi 1
come tax rate would be raised!
about 500,000 of the nation’s wealt
iest taxpayers. The rate would'
lowered for about 4.5 million
earn slightly less, he said. The tax®
capital gains would be cut for all'd'
make profits on the sale of stod 1
real estate and other investments
Bush’s new tax policy faced an®
certain reception in Congress,wit®
many Republicans philosophic
oppose any increase in tax rates,X
some Democrats are reluctant to® 1
the capital gains tax.
There was no immediate re#
from Democratic leaders
But within an hour of Bush’sdf®
sion being made public, the #
House sought to lower expectadf
for such a deal — and suggest d-
the Democrats would never
along.
Richard Darman, White Hi
budget director, said Republic*
had proposed a hike in tax rates
the wealthy during budget nejfc
tions last month but said it was
jected by the Democrats.
Under the proposal, the the®*
ginal tax rate on the wealth*
Americans would be raised fro®
percent to 31 percent, but onl (
Congress lowers the capital
rate to 15 percent.
Capital gains — profits front
sale of stocks, real estate and ov
assets — are currently taxed at 1
same rate as other income.
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