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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEB. 3, 1986, VOL. 96, NO. 88 (USPS 650-640)
A man and a woman sitting in a room.
Rain Details page 3.
Faulty booster rocket cause of blast
United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Challenger's right side booster rocket, a powerhouse never expected to fail, apparently ruptured at or near a seam where two rubber-like solid fuel segments are joined, NASA's acting administrator said yesterday.
- See related stories p. 9.8
Tracking photos showed an increasingly intense flame spewing from the lower portion of the rocket during the 15 seconds before the explosion that destroyed the shuttle and killed its crew of seven Tuesday.
"We haven't yet finished the analysis and measurement on the film to identify the exact point at which the plume appeared," said William Graham on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"It itdn't necessarily happen along a seam. It did appear to happen at least near a seam."
Graham hinted that investigators thought the trouble was an engineering problem that could be remedied fairly quickly. However, an engineer close to the rocket program who asked not to be identified said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration might face a long delay before it could fly again.
NASA sources said mission planners in Houston hoped the shuttle Atlantis could be readied for flight in time to meet a June launch deadline to send the billion-dollar Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter.
The emphasis on the search for wreckage from the shuttle shifted to the sea bottom over the weekend and NASA's newest booster recovery ship, Independence, was scheduled to join the effort today with an advanced submersible called Recon IV.
Lt. Cmdr. James Simpson of the Coast Guard said the surface search was producing fewer returns."
NASA's board of investigation met at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., yesterday to
review records and data analysis that should hold clues to exactly what happened and possibly how. Marshall is the NASA center responsible for the ship's boosters, its external fuel tank and the three main engines.
"There are so many different possibilities," Graham said, when asked how the flame could have penetrated the steel rocket casing.
Graham said if Francis Scobee, shuttle commander, had some warning of impending disaster, he might have been able to jettison the boosters and the fuel tank and attempt a gliding return to the launch site.
But the astronauts did not have instrument readings of booster rocket performance and Graham said control center personnel detected nothing abnormal in the engineering data being monitored. He said other data were recorded for study later.
Graham said on ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley" that engineers did not know whether the flame from the rocket burned through the
aluminum wall of the 184-foot external fuel tank to which the booster was attached
"I don't think it would be productive for me or NASA to speculate," he said. "We're going to release the factual information as soon as we can, when we've pulled it all together and cross checked it and understand it."
Sources said investigators also were considering the possibility that the flame might have heated the tank, and its normally supercold liquid hydrogen, to the point where a pressure buildup caused it to rupture.
Independent videotape analysis of the flight sequence showed a mass of what appears to be hydrogen at the base of the tank just before it blew up in an immense ball of fire 8.9 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.
The suspect area on the 12-foot diameter booster rocket with half-inch thick steel walls is just above a steel ring which holds the three struts
See SHUTTLE, p. 5, col. 1
United Press International
SPACE CENTER, Houston — The Challenger booster rocket that apparently triggered the shuttle disaster was so solidly built that engineers considered such a failure impossible officials said yesterday.
Officials also said the booster that developed the blowtorch-like leak may never be recovered intact for study because its heavy steel skin was split open by a launch range safety officer moments after Challenger exploded.
Challenger booster rocket was thought to be infallible
They expressed confidence, however, that the rocket's failure was caused by an isolated problem rather than a design flaw and that steps to keep the same thing from happening again could be implemented quickly.
Films of Challenger's short flight show the 149-foot-long, 12-foot-diameter booster on the right side of the craft began peening a jet of fire
from its side 59.82 seconds after launch.
The plume of fire came from a point at or near a joint between two segments of the rocket's casing, which had been used on previous flights and then refurbished for that mission.
Officials said Challenger's instruments gave no sign of the impending catastrophe that might have warned either the shuttle pilots or mission controllers in the 13.6 seconds between the plume's appearance and the blast that killed all seven on board the craft.
Challenger carried three sensors to monitor pressure in each of its booster combustion chambers, providing the primary clue about booster performance, said National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Joe Green at Cape Canaval.
Art, rugs in storage since 1954
See BOOSTER, p. 5, col. 1
By Alison Young
Special to the Kansar
Nearly $250,000 in artwork and Oriental rugs has been locked away in University storage for more than 30 years, according to KU inventory records.
The records, however, may be misleading, Ken Stoner, KU director of student housing, said last semester.
According to inventory records, nine paintings valued together at $175,000, five Oriental rugs valued together at $23,000, and a chandelier valued at $1,000, have been in a storage room in Gertrude Sellars Pearson-Corbin Hall since 1954.
KU men's basketball head coach Larry Brown helps Sabrina Brouillard, Special Olympian, in a dribbling exercise. KU center Greg Drilling, right, gives a boost to Marty Thurston, Special Olympian, in a game after the two practiced basketball drills.
Seven additional paintings, valued at $23,000, are stored in GSP. All were at one time part of the estate of Joseph R. Pearson and donated to the University.
J. J. Wilson, who retired in July after 33 years as KU student housing director, said recently that he had never seen any reason to take the art out of storage. But when Stoner took over as housing director this summer, he decided that the items should be put on display.
"In my opinion, based on the conversions I had, the values were correct at the time." Wilson said.
Wilson said the 1954 inventory values of the paintings donated by the Pearson estate were comparable to market prices for paintings of the same type and class.
The storage room's ceiling is lined with steam pipes from the boiler room below. The room, about the size of two residence hall rooms, is packed with old wooden furniture and hand-made mattresses. Just inside the door, the Oriental rugs are rolled up and have faded chairs stacked on top of them.
same syllables.
He said this was done through consultation with the Spencer Museum of Art and Robert Ackerson of Ackerson Fine Arts; an art dealership in Kansas City, Mo.
Ackerson said he didn't remember in detail the paintings, although he did recall the University had acquired some fine paintings.
He said they were given values in excess of $200 to be able to put them on University inventory, but that most of the pieces were not worth more than $200. Items valued at less than $200 are not recorded on the inventory.
quit some of the pa-
Ackerson said the value of the art-
Inventory values paintings range from $500 to $10,000. The teacher, Wilson said, the inventory values were not arbitrarily assigned.
in the middle of the room stand two large shipping crates, marked "PICTURES, DO NOT DROP, MR J.R. PEARSON, HARRODS LTD. EXPORTERS LONDON, OIL PAINTINGS." Black streaks of mold cover three boards at one end of a crate.
In a corner stands another wooden crate, marked "GLASS." It is collapsing with age and the weight of sheet-covered chairs. A crack in the top reveals glass light fixtures packed in yellow pages from the Kansas City Times — dated Sep. 19, 1947.
Stoner said the inventory values for the artwork and Oriental rugs were arbitrarily assigned and didn't reflect the items' actual values.
Inventory values for the individual paintings range from $500 to $10,000.
See ART, p. 5, col.4
Special Olympians practice lofty goals with KU idols
By Jim Suhr
Sports writer
brown and his Jayhawks met with about 70 Kansas Special Olympians for a clinic designed not only to
Less than 24 hours after its Big Eight win at Kansas State, the Kansas men's basketball team and head coach Larry Brown gathered in Allen Field House for a special two-hour workout...
Monday Morning
sharpen the participants' basketball skills but to realize goals that seemed as lofty as 7-foot-1 center Greg Dreiling.
Randi Williams, training director for Kansas Special Olympics, said the clinic was part of a year-round sports fitness and training program for the mentally retarded. Kansas offers training in all sports except hockey, ranging from gymnastics to ice skating and bowling.
Yesterday's clinic, Williams said, concentrated on basketball fundamentals such as layups, free-throw shooting, passing and dribbling.
Williams said the turnout for the clinic was twice as big as last year's. He said the Jayhawks' offering their Sunday afternoon was something the Olympians would not forget.
But the time together was a special moment for both the Olympians and the players they adored.
"When teams like this do this, our athletes tend to become loyal fans," Williams said. "That's what happened after last year's Jawhawk clinic."
wants his hand stinging from a high-five with Jayhawk forward Jerry Johnson, Special Olympian Wade Elm, of Nortonville, said the chance
to learn basketball skills and meet his favorite players was like a dream come true.
"I watched them on television, but it's a lot more special to meet them in person," he said. "I'm going to practice what I learned as soon as I get home."
Gary Samuels, a teammate of Elm's on the Lawrence Special Olympic team, stood on the sidelines after the clinic with bright eyes and Calvin Thompson's autograph. He said what he had learned meant a lot to him, and he hoped to use it in a game Friday at Topeka.
For Dreiling, the opportunity to help Olympians such as Elm and Samuels was enjoyable. He said the enthusiasm of the Special Olympians
would extend off the court.
"We only work with them a couple of hours, but they go home and practice what they've learned," he said. "That's satisfying."
Dreiling said several Olympians had called him at home prior to the clinic to ask him what skills they should practice.
"For us to have the opportunity to help someone less fortunate than us is rewarding. It's also a lot of fun," he said.
Jayhawk forward Danny Manning agreed with Driling's comments.
Brown, who has been active in the Special Olympics since the early 1980s, said the clinic was a way to expose his team to what he thought was a tremendous cause.
Brice Waddill/KANSAN
Basketball season parking frustrates campus study
By Monique O'Donnell Staff writer
Staff writer
When it's the season for basketball, it also the season for frustrated students who want to study on campus and can't find a place to park their cars.
Students who have night classes or want to study on Saturday's or weekday evenings in Learned Hall, Green Hall, Summerfield Hall and Murphy Hall often face parking problems when there are basketball games at the Allen Field House.
Tore Iversen, Drammen, Norway,
senior, said he often had problems
finding parking when he wanted to
work in the engineering design room
in Learned if there was a basketball
game that evening.
"I can understand that people want to see the basketball games," Iversen said. "But this is a university where students should have the right to get to their classes and the facilities when they need to."
Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking services, said the parking stalls reserved during basketball games were rented by the Williams Educational Fund for its members.
The Williams Fund is comprised of alumni, faculty and some students. The group donates money for athletic scholarships. Members who have season tickets and donate to the fund receive basketball parking permits.
There are 11 parking lots in which
Most parking lots around the field house are not accessible to students during the games. Hultine said the parking spaces were guaranteed to the patrons of the Williams Fund whether all spaces were filled or not.
all parking spaces are reserved and
one parking lot in which 750 out of
1,000 stalls are reserved for the
Williams Fund, Hultine said.
"There really is no provision for engineering students who have to go to Learned Hall during games," Hultine said.
Basketball fans who are not members of the Williams Fund can pay to park in certain reserved lots.
Richard Konzem, director of the Williams Fund, said the fund had purchased parking spaces from parking services for $1.50 a stall for each game.
Konzem said he hadn't heard any complaints from students having parking problems. Most events, he said, are scheduled on Saturdays which should not cause parking problems for students.
"We are paying $70,000 to parking services this year," Konzem said. "We don't take all of the parking spaces. We don't buy the one north of Robinson, the one behind the Computer Center or behind Summerfield."
Kathryn Nichols, Lawrence second-year law student, said she had bad problems finding parking
places near Green Hall during basketball game. But last semester, while she was taking a final, her professor announced that the students had to move their cars for people attending the basketball game.
"We've had problems with parking before but they never threatened us with towing our cars until that day when we were taking the final." Nichols said. "The University obviously has a screwed-up set of priorities."
Parking during sports events is an ongoing problem. A year ago, Iversen said, an evening class he was taking had to relocate to a building on West Campus because people were unable to park their cars around Learned Hall.
But George Crawford, chairman of the board of parking services, said he had not heard any complaints about parking during basketball games. He said he knew of no proposals or meetings which addressed the issue of parking during games.
See PARKING, p. 5, col. 4
or parked David Epstein, student body president and member of the parking board, said he had heard students complain about not getting to buildings they needed to study at while there was a basketball game going on.
- 'Getting to classes or to certain facilities on campus is a genuine con-
Parking fees may increase 50 cents for special events
By Leslie Hirschbach Staff writer
A planned 50-cent increase in the cost of parking at athletic and other special events has drawn the criticism of Athletic Department officials.
Members of the Parking Board approved the increase at their Jan. 27 meeting. The decision was among several that will revise KU's parking system.
With the 50-cent increase, the price of football parking would be raised from $2.50 to $3 a space each game, and the price of basketball parking would be raised from $1.50 to $2.
The money comes from the Williams Fund, which, in addition to parking fees, pays for athletic scholarships by collecting donations, he said.
Richard Konzem, assistant athletic director, said the KU athletic department paid a fee to University parking services for parking spaces used during athletic events.
Monte Johnson, athletic director,
objected to the planned increase.
Konzem said that in 1987, the
athletic department would pay $70,000 to the parking services. In 1988, the athletic department would pay $90,000 because of the ticket price increase.
"It amounts to $20,000 added expenses for us," he said.
Johnson said the additional fee for the lots around Allen Field House and the football stadium didn't seem large to most people, but would hurt the Athletic Department.
Parking board officials could not be reached for comment.
The motion needs Senex and University Council approval before the increase is carried out.
In other recent action to alter the parking system, the parking board approved a proposed common parking permit for students living in KU residence halls.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said that next fall, a common parking permit for residence halls officially would enable students to park in other residence halls' lots without receiving a ticket.
Stoner said he recommended merging the separate parking permits into a single permit because the parking authorities hadn't been enforcing the rule for the past two years.