Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2003)
AGGIELIFE THE BATTALION isteroid about to sie ovie were shot at Mi ome scenes aboard fc rck recalled, edy and Johnson spati ilmed the Columbia. I'w ia, inside it," he said, onauts and suppor, of the seven killed or am, because it's sudu :a-Jone$ 1 hubby : British gazine )ON (AP) — Michael and Catherine Zeia re “deeply distressed' olen” photographs of dding appeared in i magazine, their told Britain’s Hi«li mday. el Tugendhat said the d couple were the vie- onspiracy by Hello! to ctures of the weddint )ffer to buy them was wn. They are suing the for breach of privacy, ne would be upset on ng marriage celebra- something everyone ish to be conducted friends in an atmos- trust — should be in this way," it said. claims the pictures •ed on the open market is entitled to publisl >nes, 33, and Douglas, an exclusive deal with azine for pictures of ding November M) n New York. Hello! hit the tele, rs earlier than Of wn “exclusive” prr of the lavish weddint iza hotel. jple is suing Hello! ; its Spanish counter a!; the magazine's r, Eduardo Sanchet edia consultant the De Varela; her com- leta Overseas Ltd.; ance photographer tey. r hosts awards ORK (AP) — Carson host the first-evet ards,” which take a c at celebrity appear- ITV’s “Total Requesl irds will be givenod 3. 17 at 4 p.m. ESI ne slot for the after- o countdown show' in long onto MTV's vote for winners no" 3. 10. es include Best Live :e, the Most Moment Award and ck Award, for draw- gest crowds outside ies Square studio, es in various cate- ade Jennifer Lopez, mberlake, Britney kira and Eminem. ie show’s longtime >e joined by MTV’s ton, Damien Fahey. Phillippe, LaLa d other guests, to make a film about oelieving it will be a retelling of her icide in a gas oven. ; said Monday. for over Wyearsl 1C BREAK BRECKtmmi r\ VMilBUKBCim * KEYSTONE A-BASH OOO-S 322-2-^20 utyKsacbcliieiiii SciTech The Battalion Page 5 • Tuesday, February 4, 2003 NASA: Broken insulation could have been Columbia’s undoing NEWS IN BRIEF By Marcia Dunn THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Houston — NASA acknowledged Monday that its “best and brightest” minds may have gotten it wrong when they concluded in a report four days before Columbia disintegrated that a Hying, 2 1/2-pound chunk of insulation did no serious damage to the shuttle’s thermal tiles during liftoff. Shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said the agency will redo the entire analysis from scratch. “We want to know if we made any mistakes,” he said. Practically from the start, investiga tors have focused on the possibility that a 20-inch piece of foam insulation that fell off the shuttle’s big external fuel tank during liftoff Jan. 16 doomed the spacecraft by damaging the heat tiles that keep the ship from burning up dur ing re-entry into the atmosphere. While Columbia was still in orbit, NASA engineers analyzed launch footage frame-by-frame and were unable to determine for certain whether the shuttle was damaged. But they ran computer analyses for different scenar ios and different assumptions about the weight of the foam, its speed, and where under the left wing it might have hit, even looking at the possibility of tiles missing over an area of about 7 inches by 30 inches, NASA said. The half-page engineering report — issued on Day 12 of the 16-day flight -indicated “the potential for a large damage area to the tile.” But the analy ses showed “no burn-through and no safety-of-flight issue,” the report con cluded, according to a copy released by NASA on Monday. High-level officials at NASA said they agreed at the time with the engi neers’ assessment. “We were in complete concur rence,” Michael Kostelnik, a NASA spaceflight office deputy, said at a news conference Monday with NASA’s top spaceflight official, William Readdy. “The best and brightest engineers we have who helped design and build this system looked carefully at all the analysis and the information we had at this time, and made a determination this was not a safety-of-flight issue.” The analyses spanned a week and no one on the team, to Dittemore’s knowl edge, had any reservations about the conclusions and no one reported any concerns to a NASA hotline set up for just such occasions. “Now I am aware, here two days later, that there have been some reser vations expressed by certain individuals and it goes back in time,” Dittemore said. “So we’re reviewing those reser vations again as part of our data base. They weren’t part of our playbook at the time because they didn’t surface. They didn’t come forward.” On Monday, Readdy said the dam age done by the broken-off piece of insulation is now being looked at very carefully as a highly possible cause of the tragedy. “Although that may, in fact, wind up being the cause — it may certainly be the leading candidate right now — we have to go through all the evidence and then rule things out very methodically in order to arrive at the cause of the incident,” he said. Monday night, searchers found the front of the shuttle’s nose cone buried deep in the ground near the Louisiana border. But even more valuable in try ing to piece together what happened would be to locate any tiles from Columbia’s left wing. “That’s the missing link that we’re trying to find,” Dittemore said. Court delays Microsoft anti-trust injunction SEATTLE (AP) — An appeals court Monday delayed an order requiring Microsoft to include Sun Microsystem's Java programming language in its Windows operating system. The decision came the day before the lower-court order was to take effect, requiring Microsoft to include the latest version of Java in its Windows XP software within 120 days. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., stayed the order while it considers Redmond-based Microsoft's appeal. "We believed all along it was appropriate that this matter be decided by the circuit court before we move forward with implement ing the injunction," said Jim Desler, a Microsoft spokesman. Ephedra unsafe even when used properly PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Ephedra, an herb found in weight-loss and bodybuilding supplements, is unsafe even when taken in recom mended doses and should be restricted, according to doctors who studied reports of bad reac tions to the herb. U.S. poison control centers reported 1,178 adverse reactions to ephedra dietary supplements in 2001, said the study, which was to be posted on the Annals of Internal Medicine's Web site Tuesday and published next month. Ephedra accounted for 64 percent of all adverse reactions involving herbs, even though it is found in fewer than 1 percent of all herbal products sold. Investigators focus on protective tiles NASA said Monday that damage to Columbia’s thermal tiles during liftoff is the leading theory in the investigation of the disaster. Missing tiles could have exposed the spacecraft to destructive temperatures upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere — temperatures that are hot enough to melt steel. Maximum tile temperature Felt insulator 700°F Low-temperature tiles 1,200 F High-temperature tiles 2,325° F Wm Carbon compound 3,000° F Black tiles called high- temperature tiles are generally six sq. inches, and vary in thickness from 1 to 3 inches. Black glass coating The largest allowable gap between the tiles is 0.065 inches. Silica-fiber compound tile Nomex felt pads allows movement while keeping the tile rigid. Adhesive on either side holds the tile in place. SOURCES: NASA; Space Strategic Affairs Some 24,300 tiles insulate the shuttle’s aluminum skin. Investigators are focusing on temperature increase in the wheel well of the left wing. .VLiuio.tn. Give Your Ticket fThe Finger. WWW. com The Easiest, Most Convenient Way To Dismiss Your Traffic Ticket Why suffer through tedious defensive driving classes, lame comedians or long lines at video stores when you can go online and click your traffic ticket away on the Internet... any time, anywhere. And at only $40.00, you can’t afford not to take DefensiveDriving.com. Here’s why: ■ CONVENIENCE Just log on from any computer with Internet access, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So you’re in the driver’s seat. ■ FLEXIBILITY Finish the course in as little as 6 hours or up to 90 days, even in 10-minute intervals. You choose. ■ RATED #1 IN TEXAS Get your official Texas Certificate of Completion from Texas’ original, most trusted online defensive driving course. STATE & COURT APPROVED DefensiveDriving.com is approved by the Texas Education Agency, and is accepted by all courts in Texas. LOWER INSURANCE RATES Most insurance companies will lower your auto insurance rates with your completion of DefensiveDriving.com. .5% \HTr?\//SToD<£vTfiFFfl'tRS.Tfi*o.£D Got A Ticket? Just Click It! TM FooJ Services Student Advisory Booed | Apply Now! The Department of Food Services is looking for students to sit on a Student Advisory Board and give feedback on dining options and dining facilities. Three Meetings a Semester Free Lunch Voice Your Opinions Great Resume Builder Deadline to apply is February 7,2002 rill ouf jin application «it Lttp://! oofl.htm ij.cm] u/application