Daily hansan
60th Year, No.14
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 1962
Schirra Bucking for Six Orbits
Schirra's Flight In Brief
SPACE AT A GLANCE By United Press International
THE MAN
THE MISSION
Walter M. Schirra Jr., 39-year-old Navy commander, roared into space today from Cape Canaveral in a Mercury capsule boosted by an Atlas rocket. America's fifth space man, and third to fly an orbital mission, went into orbit at 6:21 a.m. CST, reported his two-ton Sigma 7 spacecraft was "flying beautifully."
Six orbits planned, three more than the previous flights by U.S. Astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter but far short of the 64 orbits by Soviet Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolavev.
HEIGHT - SPEED
Schirra became the highest-flying American to date when his capsule reached a maximum distance of 176 miles from earth on its first orbit. Traveling 17,560 miles an hour, he was circling the earth every 89 minutes.
LANDING
Schirra's landing zone will be in the Pacific about 3:26 p.m. CST.
AUDIENCE
The nation's newest spaceman lifted off at 6:15 a.m. CST in a blaze of publicity — live television coverage across America, followed by taped transmissions to Europe via Telstar minutes later.
REPORT FROM SPACE
"I feel real good. I have beads of perspiration on my lips but that's about all."
SOVIET REACTION
Tass, the official Soviet news agency, reported Schirra faced dangers ranging from "foundering for hours in the ocean" to possible radiation from atomic tests. Tass announced the space flight shortly after it started, something the Russians hadn't done for previous U.S. efforts.
BULLETIN
With nearly two-thirds of his 96-orbit flight completed, the Astronaut reported that he had 90 per cent of his fuel left. Soaring over the U.S. West Coast, he reported a haze over the continent and said he was "drifting and dreaming."
* *
By Stan Hall
CAPE CANAVERAL — (UPI) — Shouting "Hallelujah," Astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr. flashed around the earth on America's longest space flight today. Once he reported everything was going so well that a chimp could fly his spacecraft.
At 10:47, the 39-year-old Navy commander shot into his fourth orbit, surpassing the three-orbit feats of previous U.S. Astronauts. The happy and confident spaceman headed toward a Pacific landing after a hoped-for six circles of the globe.
GIVEN THE go-ahead for six orbits just after he started the fourth, the jubilant Astronaut responded with a shout of "Hallelujah."
Ground observers reported at this point that the Schirra flight appeared to be the finest orbital performance in the history of the U.S. man-in-space program even better than the smooth flight of John H. Glenn.
But the New Jersey-born Astronaut was a busy man. He carried out experiments to build up knowledge for 24-hour orbital flights next year, two-man orbital trips and journeys to the moon sometime between 1967 and 1970.
PEERING FROM THE window of his capsule, he saw the city lights of Perth, Australia, the moon hanging to his left, and a "block of light" thrown up by a high-intensity flare fired from Woomera, Australia.
During the third orbit, a tracking ship in the Indian Ocean reported that his spaceship was visible in the rays of the sun, a rare occurrence. The vessel said the craft was "almost as bright as the planet Venus."
Schirra was hurled aloft from Cape Canaveral at 6:15 am. atop a 10-story high Atlas rocket. It was the smoothest launch in U.S. space history and came just one day shy of the fifth anniversary of the Space Age. Russia launched its Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957.
THE TELSTAR Communications Satellite relayed pictures of Schirra's preparations and the near-perfect launch of his rocket and space capsule for distribution in 17 Western and nine Eastern European nations.
Six minutes after launch, Schirra shot into an orbit that carried him to a maximum height of 176 miles.
Racial Tension Clouds 'Ole Miss' Homecoming
OXFORD, Miss. — (UPI) — University of Mississippi officials debated today whether to call off Saturday's homecoming football game as a threat to the shaky peace on the riot-shattered campus.
A university official said homecoming plans still are in force but a Justice Department official said a firm decision whether to go ahead will not be made until tomorrow morning.
EDWIN GUTHMAN, a Justice Department official, said 14 men were taken into custody last night after the disturbance. He said two of them were students and the others outsiders.
A group of students threw rocks and bottles and exploded firecrackers near the dormitory housing James Meredith, (the university's first Negro student) early today but were quickly dispersed by soldiers. An army spokesman said the "small demonstration" occurred about 1 a.m. EDT several hours before Meredith was to begin his third day of classes at the strife-torn university. There were no arrests, the army official said, and relatively few youths were involved.
NO DAMAGE OR injuries were reported. The students also tossed exploding firecrackers into the air before soldiers, stationed on the campus to prevent further rioting, broke up the gathering.
The incident broke only briefly the uneasy calm which has settled over the "Ole Miss" campus and the small town of Oxford since federal troops moved in to quell rioting and restore order early Monday.
ARMED SENTRIES remained on campus and in downtown Oxford to back the administration in its determination that Mississippi would comply with the court-ordered integration.
The army moved 3,600 paratroopers out of Oxford last night in what was described as a "regrouping of forces." The maneuver left about 11,000 soldiers in the area to watch the tense situation surrounding Meredith's enrollment.
Meredith, a 29-year-old Air Force veteran, was hanged in effigy last night from the third floor window of a dormitory next to his. "We'll be glad when you're gone," read a cardboard placard hanging from the straw dummy's neck.
and a low point of 100 miles. Shortly afterward, the Astronaut messaged back: "She's flying beautifully."
The previous U.S. height record was held by Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter who reached a distance of 167 miles. The world's record is held by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarian, the first man to orbit the earth. He reached a peak of 187.75 miles.
Whirling around the globe once every hour and a half at 17,560 miles an hour, Schirra reported seeing
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Mrs. Schirra Keeps Vigil
Her mother, Mrs. James L. Holloway of Philadelphia, also was with her. In this Gulf Coast village near Houston, where wives wait for fishermen husbands to come home from the sea, all was quiet in the hand-some brick home of the Schirra family.
SEABROOK, Tex. — (UPI) — Mrs. Josephine Schirra, elated and proud of her husband's "beautiful liftoff" into space, kept vigil in her home today with her children and the wife of Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom for company.
Once during the morning, son Walter, 12, who is called "Marty," came out of the house and played peek-a-boo with photographers. He scooted back inside with a grin on his face when a passing school girl teased him and called him a "big ham."
MRS. GRISSOM, a next-door neighbor, took her two children to school and then went to the Schirra house where the family was gathered in the den, hearing reports on the flight.
Once during the wait, daughter Suzanne, 5, put on a ballet costume and high-heeled shoes and did a little dance for Roy Wallack, a public relations official of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, who was staving with the family.
He relayed comments of the family to newsmen waiting outside the house.
"It was a beautiful liftoff. We are very happy it came off so well," Mrs. Schirra said.
Political Issues Absent On Campus
If political action in September is any indication, KU is becoming a school without an issue.
Several campus organizations that aroused controversy last year, so far have remained on the sidelines.
Vox Populi and the University Party have been back-biting over a decentralization of polls proposal necessitated by the University's traffic plan. In the past, both political parties organized motor pools to bring students to the polls at Strong Hall. Since student cars are no longer allowed on campus during school hours, motor pools cannot be used.
Each party is now trying to establish polls that are most accessible to their members.
Weather
Sunshine and warmer temperatures seemed to be on the way for Kansas today as drier air moved in from the north.
Cloudiness and resulting drizzle appeared but forecasts called for sunny skies and rising temperatures and more settled weather over the next 48 hours.
Highs today will range in the upper 60s east and 70-75 west. Overnight lows will be from 50 to 55.
KU-Y Asks $6,000 Support For Programs
The KU-Y, the University of Kansas' oldest and largest student organization, is looking to friends and alumni for $6,000 to continue its program.
"We feel confident that if we let people know what our need is, we can raise the money," Thomas Moore, executive secretary of KU-Y, said.
A PRIVATE. atonomous organization, the KU-Y this year lost 40 per cent of its income when its annual University subsidy was terminated in February.
This termination came after Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe questioned whether state funds legally could go to the KU-Y, a primarily religious but nondenominational organization.
It was the opinion of Atty. Gen. William Ferguson not to allocate the KU-Y funds after the school year of 1961-62.
Moore said the decision to stop the subsidy was not surprising in view of the issue on separation of the church and state.
He said the subsidy was renewable each year with no procedure for a stopping date. "So there was no betrayal of promises," Mr. Moore said.
The KU-Y is a program of the YWCA and the YMCA,merged in 1956 when the University granted aid.
MOORE SAID HE FELT the funds could be raised if the KU-Y could put out the effort needed to contact its alumni. He said the KU-Y has received about $1,000 in donations in recent years, but there would have to be an increase to include the amount of the subsidy, $5,665.
This means the KU-Y will have to raise about $6,500 from KU-Y alumni. board members and friends.
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- ACTION, A THIRD political group, which last semester raised controversy in its bid for deletion of fraternity discrimination clauses apparently is now trying to shed its "radical" image. Action officials will discuss tomorrow night whether the group will continue in its attempt to establish itself as a political party, or to act as a sounding board for liberal opinion.
In other areas, at least three other campus organizations have indicated they will continue last year's policies despite accusations of extremism.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS COUNCIL, Young Americans for Freedom and the Student Peace Union are meeting at the Kansas Union tonight to formulate their policies for the semester.
"We've made some gains, but no giant step has been taken as far as integration is concerned here," Don Warner, Topeka senior and CRC co-chairman, said.
Warner said last spring's housing ruling which provides that the university list only apartments accepting persons of all races was the major accomplishment in civil rights at KU last year.
He added that two fraternities had made attempts to remove discriminatory clauses from their constitutions at national conventions this summer. Neither of the unidentified Greek houses announced the outcome of the action.
WARNER LISTED barber shops and women's dormitories as likely issues on the CRC's investigation list.
"Although a survey last year found barbers much more willing to cut Negroes' hair, there's still a problem," he noted.
Warner said integration in women's dormitories could be accelerated.
"The policy in women's dorms is that white and Negro women are not placed together unless they specifically request it," Warner said. "In the men's dormitories and the scholarship halls such a policy is not enforced since they haven't had any problems."
Warner pointed out that some Negroes prefer to join a Negro fraternity, but they would like to know that they have the right to join a white fraternity and be judged on their own merits.
The CRC official said he has considered the value of a white man pledging a Negro fraternity.
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Wescoe to Advisory Post
TOPEKA — (UPI) — Gov. John Anderson today announced the appointments of Dr. W. Clarke Wescoe, Chancellor of the University of Kansas, and Dr. A. L. Olsen, director of the Winter Veterans Administration Hospital, to the advisory commission on Institutional Management. They will serve four-year terms on the advisory group.