2
University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Thursday, Jan. 30, 1986
Nation mourning lost crew
United Press International
The nation poured out its grief yesterday for the seven men and women who died in pursuit of their dreams aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
Across the country flags fluttered at half-staff and churches opened their doors for memorial services.
Counselors and child psychologists tried to ease the agony of schoolchildren who gathered for a lesson from space but instead saw fiery death boil across their television screens.
Many psychologists said the tragedy would prove the deepest national trauma since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In Los Angeles the Olympic flame that burned for the 1984 games was relit to burn for a week in memory of the dead astronauts.
In New York the stock exchanges paused in their raucous trading for a moment.
Many radio stations fell silent for a minute at 10:39 a.m. to mark the moment when Challenger blossomed into hideous flame Tuesday. Others played the national anthem.
In Washington, Air and Space Museum director Walter Boyne installed a plaque commemorating the lost crew.
president and Mrs. Reagan will travel to Houston for a space agency memorial service tomorrow.
Nowhere was the grieving deeper than in Concord, N.H., home of Christa McAuliffe, who was selected from 11,000 applicants to become the first teacher — and the first private citizen — in space.
"She's dead," sobbed Colleen Murray, a student at the school where McAuliffe taught. "She followed her dream and she died."
Three hundred grade school children attended a service at St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Concord, where the Rev. Dan Messier said, "It's going to take a while for the community itself to bounce back. Christa McAuliffe was Concord, New Hampshire. She was us. When she stepped on that shuttle, Concord, New Hampshire, stepped on it with her."
Dick Lower, pastor of St. John's, said, "My biggest concern is the little kids. The past month the schools closely followed Christa McAuliffe's exploits, and then yesterday they saw her killed."
classes at Concord High were canceled, but the school remained open, staffed with counselors and volunteer psychologists to help students and faculty deal with their anguish. The school has been inundated with telephone calls, telegrams and letters from across the country expressing condolences.
Gregg Wright, director of the Nebraska Health Department, donated $1,000 to the University of Nebraska Foundation to create a Christa McAuliffe Distinguished Teaching Award.
A memorial service was scheduled for tomorrow at the Temple Israel in Akron, Ohio, for astronaut Judith Resnik. In Mexico City, the rabbi who gave her religious instruction when she was 12 years old said that when he learned of her death, "I almost fainted."
Soap viewers criticize Challenger coverage
NEW YORK — Networks received hundreds of complaints Tuesday from viewer> upset that daytime soap operas were preempted by coverage of the Challenger explosion.
United Press International
Another memorial service was set
Challenge response Of 1.731 calls received by ABC, 80 percent were about the soaps.
"There's always some who complain about the soaps," ABC Entertainment spokesman Vic Ghidalin said Wednesday. "It's not that these people are heartless. It's the repetition."
Glidalia said daytime viewers watched the news coverage over and over and wanted a break from shuttle coverage.
He said the network received 6,000 calls when programming was pre-empted because of the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
NBC's audience research divi-
son said a few viewers complained about the loss of the soaps.
"It wasn't heavy, nothing like general audience complaints."
CBS switchboards also recorded complaints.
"One always gets calls," Silver said, "As they say, this particular time it was a very low percentage of fans that were complaining.
"We had fewer than 200 calls, and of those a small percentage objected to the pre-emption," said CBS Entertainment Spokesman Michael Silver.
ABC's spokeswoman for soap operas, Andre Fecht, said loyal soap viewers always complain when their shows are taken off the air.
r-grad for astronaut Ronald McNair at North Carolina A&T University, where he graduated in 1971. The Rev. Jesse Jackson will take part in the service, school officials said.
"When President Reagan was shot, surprisingly, they went on with complaints about us preempting the soaps," Fecht said. "The soap people are very devoted fans."
In Mike Smith's hometown of Beaufort, N.C., about two dozen friends got together yesterday to erect a memorial on U.S. 70 near Joe's Grocery.
It features seven large flags at half staff - six in a half circle and one in the middle, a little higher than the rest, for Smith.
A 2-foot-high sign reads: "Mike Smith is a success. He has lived well, laughed often and loved everybody. He has accomplished his task and left the world a better place than he found it."
World leaders send condolences
United Press International
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sent a telegram to President Reagan yesterday expressing condolences to the United States and the families of the seven Challenger space shuttle crew members who died in history's worst space disaster.
Pope John Paul II sent his heartfelt condolences to the U.S. people in a brief message to Reagan
In Warsaw, Poland, the communist government said it was shocked by the explosion of the Challenger, but the armed forces newspaper Zolnierz Wolohosci said the tragedy might serve a good cause by delaying Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative research program in space.
Many other messages from around the world urged the United States to continue its space program despite the staggering loss.
Rude Pravo, the newspaper of the ruling Czechoslovak Communist Party, said the death of the crew was the toll paid by humans in their efforts to unveil the mysteries of outer space.
"In this sense," the newspaper said, "the tragedy of Challenger is accepted with deep sorrow the world over."
Danish Defense Minister Hans Engell, chairman of NATO's European group, said, "We in Europe are deeply shocked and expressed our heartfelt sympathies with the American people and the families of those who died."
or those who die.
In Peking, a foreign ministry spokesman said China expressed its condolences to the U.S. government and people in a message to Reagan. Film footage of the explosion was shown on Chinese television.
In a telegram to Reagan reprinted by the official Soviet news agency Tass, Gorbachev said, "We
partake of your grief at the tragic death of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger."
Soviet cosmonauts, who shared a joint Apollo spacecraft mission with U.S. astronauts in 1975, sent a message of profound condolences to U.S. colleagues and the families of the deceased.
Soviet television broadcast film of the explosion of Challenger just after liftoff for the 25th mission of the U.S. shuttle program.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his rival in next month's presidential election, Corazon Aquino, also expressed grief over the deaths of the crew.
In Brussels, Belgium, Prime Minister Wilfred Martens called the crew of Challenger pioneers, saying, "We not only bid farewell to seven young American citizens, but also to seven pioneers of mankind in its conquest of space.
Challenger disaster stymies flight plans
United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The twisted debris of Challenger represents the loss of one-fourth of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's manned space flight capability, threatening long delays for a backlog of scientific, commercial and military payloads.
Acting NASA administrator William Graham said yesterday that he could not yet predict the effect of the disaster on the agency's plans but that the tragedy clearly had far-reaching implications.
A record 15 flights had been scheduled for 1906 as the agency prepared for two launchings a month by the end of the decade, a schedule that probably couldn't be met with the three remaining space shuttles NASA has.
Officials said it would take Rockwell International three years to build a new space shuttle if President Reagan and Congress agreed to pay the $1.5 billion-plus bill.
Graham said at a news conference,
"The future schedule or the space program and shuttle activities can't be determined at this time. We certainly intend to go forward with the program. There will be future launches. There will be future activities."
But Graham could not predict when manned space activities could resume and, in the meantime, the shuttle program is at a standstill, wrapped in a shroud of secret investigations as the agency tries to piece together the disaster's cause.
OF NASA's four space shuttles, only Challenger and Atlantis had been modified to carry Centaur rocket boosters vital to a pair of missions in May in which showcase science probes were to have been launched.
The European Ulysses sun-study probe was scheduled for launch aboard Challenger on May 15. It now will be at least a year and probably longer before it gets off the ground.
The billion-dollar U. S. Galileo pro to Jupiter, scheduled for blastoff just five days after Ulysses, faces a similar delay because if it is not off the ground by June 9 the orbital positions of Earth, the sun and Jupiter will prevent another try for 13 months.
With only three shuttles, NASA may have trouble getting its long-planned space station project off the ground in the 1990s, a program that will require numerous shuttle flights for construction and supply once the permanently manned base is complete.
Astronaut training site an intimate community
United Press International
CLEAR LAKE CITY, Texas Early yesterday, the old Presbyterian Church, a site for community mourning since the Galveston flood of 1900, opened once again.
It was from its burnished pews that John Glenn, a church elder, prayed for the safety of his colleagues endangered in space.
It was from the pulpit that church members cologized Roger Chaffee, who perished 19 years and a day before the Challenger crew was destroyed.
Clear Lake City, population 45,000 did not exist 30 years ago. It was a child of the space program.
All of NASA's astronauts train here, and most - at least 80 - have now established homes here.
to save the old Presbyterian church museum that many astronaut families heard of the terrible fireball, over Cape Canaveral.
It was at a fund-raising gathering
"Everybody cried," says Brackett. "One woman whose husband was scheduled to go up on the next mission was ushered to a private room and comforted. We all felt for her."
As the news circulated, the community closed ranks. Friends hired security guards to protect families of the lost astronauts from droves of newsmen. Outsiders were shoed from favorite watering holes like Frenchie's on the west side and The Outpost, a ramshackle saloon at the end of a shell road where astronauts unaffected Shiner's beer with the locals.
Tina Farrell, a teacher, knew the children of the astronauts. "We loved them like family," she said. Her husband, a football coach, had applied to the first teacher in space.
We Pile it On!
Pyramid Pizza's Second Annual "SLICE-O-LIFE"
Ski Trip
New and improved! Through careful negotiations, Pyramid has been able to secure lodging accessible to both Vail and Beaver Creek at no extra cost to you! Call Brad for details at 842-3232.
Pyramid has been collecting names all semester for a random drawing to win a free ski trip for two. The finalists will be drawn tomorrow at 3 p.m. at The Wheel.
THE SEMI-FINALISTS ARE:
Howie Beauchamp Ann Kelly
Andy Gensch Susan Hershman
Chandler Hudson Selina Jackson
Mike Hutchinson Tony Snider
Jill John Kristina Overlander
coupon coupon
Money-saver Coupon
good thru Sat. Feb. 1
16" large
two-topping pizza
PLUS
2 Free Cokes
only $9.95
842-3232
Money-saver Coupon
good thru Sat. Feb. 1
12"
two-topping pizza
only $7.50
842-3232