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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1991)
6 IT World ^Nation Friday, June 7,1991 Astronauts face spacewalk Engineers may leave shuttle House saves space station, grants $2 billion in funding CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA told Columbia's astronauts Thursday they may have to make an emergency spacewalk as early as this weekend to nx a loose seal on the space shuttle's cargo bay doors. A special team of engineers was conduct ing tests to determine whether the flapping weatherstripping will prevent the doors from closing tightly at the end of the mis sion. "There are no real concerns that we couldn't today, right now, if we needed to, crush that seal and latch the doors down," NASA flight director Randy Stone said. "But it's always the better part of valor to analyze things in their entirety and understand all of the options you have in front of you, and that's what we're doing." The engineers planned to duplicate the problem Friday on the shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center. Stone said a spacewalk, if necessary, prob ably wouldn't occur before Sunday. The like liest day would be Tuesday, a slow research day that would have the least impact on medical work being conducted by the astro nauts, he said. Two of the seven astronauts — Tamara Jer- nigan and James Bagian — are trained to per form spacewalking repairs, including man ual closing of the two cargo bay doors. Bagian, a physician, is one of four medical specialists on board who are conducting blood tests and other experiments on one an other. The 60-foot-long cargo bay doors must be closed tightly for Columbia to safely make the fiery re-entry through the atmosphere June 14, after a nine-day mission. Otherwise, the ship could bum up. Before a spacewalk, the crew probably would be asked to try closing the cargo bay doors, although that could cause more prob lems, Stone said. He said any spacewalk would be short and relatively simple — ei ther trying to put the seal back in place or clipping off the loose part. Television images sent down shortly after Columbia reached orbit Wednesday showed two crooked strips of reinforced rubber pro truding from the edge of the doors. Several white blankets of insulation also came loose in the payload bay. Stone said the two prob lems probably were related, possibly caused by the rush of trapped cargo bay air into the vacuum of space. "It's all part of that same phenomenon that's disturbing those blankets back there," Stone said. The four medical specialists drew more blood, breathed gases from a pipe and donned pressure-monitoring collars Thurs day as they circled the world in the most elaborate medical clinic ever sent into space. It is the first shuttle mission devoted to un derstanding how the body adjusts to weight lessness. Also aboard were laboratory rats and jellyfish. Despite the medical team's expertise with needles, the blood collection took a little longer than expected. "It's still running a little ragged because WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rescued the embattled space station Thursday, voting to spend nearly $2 billion next year on NASA's centerpiece program well into the 21st Century. By a vote of 240-173, the House agreed to give President Bush $1.9 billion that the space agency re quested for the fiscal year that be gins Oct. 1. The money will be taken mostly from other NASA programs. "If we aim to become a second- class nahon, then we should go ahead and kill the space program, kill the space station and kill it all," said Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas. The impassioned debate lasted six hours. Republicans, prodded by the Bush administration, voted for the station, 133-27 while Dem ocrats split 145-107 against. A beaming NASA Administra tor Richard Truly cautioned that much work remained before a fi nal 1992 budget for space emerges. While the space station would get nearly all the money the agency sought, the money would have to be trimmed from other NASA programs in science, tech nology, aerodynamics and the like. "It would oe a very, very dif ficult problem for us," Truly said. But he expressed hope that the Senate, which has yet to act on the measure, will come to NASA's aid. Salvaging the space station was the most important issue, he said. Advocates of the space station invoked the names of space pi oneer Wemher von Braun, the moon program, the Bible, "Neil Armstrong's Spirit," Daniel Webster and Star Trek. They warned that America's manned space program would end in mid-decade if the project were cancelled and that America's young people would turn from sci ence and engineering education without a big goal to shoot for. 1.90 Forme: Shelby ) A&M of lions tha lars in a players. Me teal gal fund day with The Ai ever, rep the cash Presidential panel considers closing of military bases Judge denies court ordered continuation of tube feedings to brain-damaged patient WASHINGTON (AP) — A pres idential commission opened pub lic deliberations Thursday on the process of choosing which military installations to close across the country. "This is an experimentation in open govern ment," said Jim Courier, a for mer New Jersey congressman who heads the seven-member Defense Base Closure and Re alignment Com mission. Jim Courter, com- Base closings mission head, said have attracted a final list will be widespread at- ready June 18. tention because military installations play an im portant economic role in their communities. Members of Con gress and local activists have lob bied to keep their bases open. The panel's process of targeting bases got off to a slow start as members quizzed commission staff members about the merits of individual Air Force bases. The panel will look later at the other services. Courter said there was no timetable on when the panel would make its decisions, but public hearings are scheduled Thursday and Friday. The com mission's objective is to "whittle down and pare down" the list. The panel stopped work Thurs day without making any decisions about bases. The deliberations culminate two - months of work during which panel members held public meet ings around the counhy and vis ited bases. Courter said he hoped a final list would be finished by June 18. Under law, the panel must pre sent its target list to President Bush by July 1. The president and Congress must then approve the list as a total package. Panel members are looking clo sely at 79 facilities: 43 targeted by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and 36 added by the commission as alternatives. Among the major bases on the commission's list are five of the Navy's home ports: Staten Island, N.Y.; Pascagoula, Miss.; Mobile, Ala.; Everett, Wash.; and Ingle- side, Texas. The list also includes the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in Califor nia, Fort Drum in New York and Fort Richardson in Alaska. Cheney's list includes Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Army's Fort Dix in Wrightstown, N.J.; and Fort Ord in Seaside, Calif. Two Pennsylvania lawmakers — Democratic Rep. Tom Foglietta and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter — said Thursday that Cheney overrode a Navy memo that rec ommended keeping open the Phil adelphia Naval Shipyard. "Two weeks before Secretary Cheney released his base closure report, the Navy's experts said to keep the yard open," Foglietta said, adding that the memo was written by the Naval Sea Systems Command. NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A judge denied a request Wednes day to extend a court order that re sumed tube feedings to a brain damaged woman whose parents want to let her die. Superior Court Judge Jerry Barr denied the request from the Na tional Legal Center for the Medi cally Dependent and Disabled, whose attorneys are trying to have the feedings permanently restored to Sue Ann Lawrance. A lawyer for the center, Mary Nimz, said it will ask the Indiana Court of Appeals, perhaps as early as Thursday, to continue the feed ing order while the case is ap pealed. Lawrance's parents obtained an order from Barr last month allow ing them to end her feedings, but he later ordered the feedings to re sume for 21 days —until Saturday — pending an appeal. The center needs more time to prepare an appeal, Nimz said. Without an extension, the Law rance family could withdraw food and water again, she said. "I'm hopeful the Court of Ap peals will recognize the serious ness of this case and want to make sure that her condition remains stable until all the legal issues have been completely resolved," Nimz said. Lawrance, 42, of Indianapolis, who has had brain damage since childhood, was left in a persistent vegetative state in 1987, when she fell from her wheelchair. Her parents, William and Bonita Lawrance, have said their daugh ter would be better off dead. Law rance went without nourishment from May 3 to May 17 after Barr or dered feedings to resume tempo rarily. Because Lawrance became re tarded while still a child, her case is different from the landmark case of Nancy Cruzan, the brain-dam aged Missouri woman who died last year. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Missouri officials could block the removal Cruzan's feeding tube unless there was "clear and con vincing" evidence she wouldn't want to be kept alive. Her parents provided the evidence, and her feeding tube was removed. Secured health-care insurance proposed Employees protected WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic leaders on Wednesday proposed legislation to guarantee oasic health-care insurance for all Americans by requiring em ployers to pay Farmers angry, blame USD A for problems into a govern ment-sponsored plan if they don't offer their Weather kills harvests WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Kika de la Garza chastised Agriculture Department officials Thursday for not responding to approaching disaster for wheat and cotton farmers on the parched High Plains and rice farmers in the muddied fields along the Coastal Bend. "Y'all ought to be out there hustling," said a clearly frustrated de la Garza, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. "I know the system is not responding to the immediate need." De la Garza, a Mission Democrat, said farmers in half of the nation's 3,000 counties face problems due to extreme weather. "We have to respond. Or do you only act when it's on the 6 o'clock news," de la Garza told several high-ranking USDA officials during a hearing on troubles facing farmers from Minnesota to the Rio Grande. But Rep. Glenn English, D-Okla., said that despite a disastrous year for wheat farmers on the High Plains of Oklahoma and Texas, it's too early to "point the finger" at the USDA. Agency officials also said it was too early to assess whether the nation's farmers face full-blown disas ter. "It may not be the proper time for USDA to say a disaster situation justifies emergency provisions of the law or not," English said. In Western Oklahoma, however, "we've got a disaster and a pretty serious one, but we don't know the true extent. ... It'll be a greater disaster than we anticipate today." English said some farmers may not even harvest their wheat this year because there is not enough to start the combines. "The timing of these disasters could hardly come at a worse time when grain prices are the lowest in recent memory, production costs are up, and agri cultural lenders are becoming more reluctant to pro vide financial credit to farmers," English said. New York City passes tough rights bill NEW YORK (AP) — The City Council on Wednesday passed a civil rights bill described as one of the toughest in the nation, but the lone dissenter argued it would encourage racial quotas. The measure, approved 34-1, shifts to the employer the burden of proving that employment tests don't discriminate if one group of individuals — such as women or racial minorities — fails at a dis- ^ro^orhonately high rate. It also provides for civil fines of up to "While the bill speaks of no quotas ... it nevertheless shifts the burden on the small business owner to provide the mechanism for the legal process in proving their hiring practices," said Fred Ce- rullo of Staten Island, the only Republican in the legislative body, who also cast the only dissenting vote. Interior minister questions defector's death SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — The Bulgarian interior minister said Wednesday he is convinced that Bulgarian secret police killed a prominent defector who was stabbed with a poison-tipped um brella in London in 1978. Two British intelligence officials, meanwhile, arrived Wednesday with their files to work with Bul garian investigators, the state news agency BTA said. The murder of the writer and journalist Georgi Markov has never been solved, but British in vestigators long have suspected that Bulgarian agents carried out the deed. "No one can ever convince me that writer Georgi Markov was not assassinated by the Bulgarian se cret services," Interior Minister Hristo Danov told BTA. Last month. Deputy Premier Di- mitar Ludzhev told The Asso ciated Press that the case was "ty pical of political terrorism," and said he was certain the former Bul garian secret service had had a hand in the murder. Ludzhev is co-chairman of a government commission review ing the activities of the Bulgarian secret police under Communist rule. $ Jr Chun King/S/'i r^UlMCCC DCCTA MD A MT y CHINESE RESTAURANT SOMMER SPECIAL ALL YOU CAN EA T LUNCH BUFFET $4 50 Sunday - Friday 11:30-2:00 DINNER BUFFET $5 50 Sunday - Friday 5:00-8:00 We Serve Beer & Wine Lunch 11-2 Dinner 5-10 1673 Briarcrest Drive, Bryan 774-1157 %n SliSSbi BUSINESS MAJORS EARN 12 HOURS OF CREDIT WHILE STUDYING IN ITALY SPRING SEMESTER 1992 MAKE YOUR RESERVA TIOPN NOW EARN CREDIT IN: FINC 445: Funding International Business (CR 3) ACCT 489: Special Topics in International Accounting (CR 3) BUAD 489: Issues in International Business (CR 3) ARTS 350: Art History (CR 3) MKTG 321: Intro, to Marketing (CR 3) • Program Faculty from the College of Business: Steve Salter, 845-1498, 525N Blocker, Arvind Mahajan, 845-4876, 333F Blocker, Sam Gillespie, 845-5861, 623B Blocker, Study Abroad Office, 161 W. Bizzell Hall, 845-0544 own. The program is designed to George Mitchell protect an esti- co-sponsors a bill mated 35 million to create a national people who now health care plan, nave no health insurance. Two-thirds of them are workers or their dependents. And most have incomes above the fed eral poverty line and hence don't qualify for Medicaid, the health care program for the poor. "Access to affordable, quality health care should be a right for ail Americans, not merely a luxury for those who have the economic means to purchase health insuran ce," said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine. Other co-sponsors were Edward M. Ken nedy of Massachusetts, Donald Riegle of Michigan and Jay Rocke feller of West Virginia. The program, which would re place about half of the $60-billion, federal-state Medicaid program, was estimated by sponsors to cost the federal treasury an additional $6 billion the first year. Medicaid would continue to provide long term care for the poor. But sponsors said that cost-con tainment requirements of the pro gram would actually save the na tion $78 billion over five years in combined public and private health-care costs, by mandating a standardized billing system, im plementing new fee guidelines and cracking down on unneces sary treatment. Employers, meanwhile, would be given the option to "play or pay." Sei Texas / proved a to e> [lasses to mg two y prawlin slraints. The 2( ivhich bej iponse to leaving ci late becai east to w< ‘o south c A repo aing Co Le Legisla texas stc get out ol adir they wen fducatior luring a l Sonia alucatior bid edua bat tead make the allege to Heman