University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, December 7, 1988
Nation/World
7
Tire leak not a concern in space shuttle landing
The Associated Press
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Atlantis streaked out of orbit yesterday from its secret spy satellite mission and glided to an unusual afternoon landing as a small band of spectators cheered the five astronauts' safe return.
Navy Crud, Robert L. Gibson guided the 97-ton shuttle to a centerline touchdown at 5:35 p.m. CST after a flight of 4 days, 9 hours, 5 minutes.
Two sonic booms crackled overhead as Atlantis descended and made its swooping approach to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert.
One tire on the shuttle's left landing gear had a slow leak, but NASA said it was not a concern. It certainly
did not seem to affect the smoothness of the touchdown, which was televised live by the networks.
it was only the seventh afternoon shuttle landing, the time apparently dictated by the orbit Atlantis had to follow in deploying a radar satellite to spy on the Soviet Union. NASA prefers morning landings at Edwards because winds tend to gather force later in the day.
Because of the military secrecy, yesterday's touchdown was closed to public viewing from the observation site on this military base 80 miles north of Los Angeles. Only a few hundred journalists, NASA employees and invited guests witnessed the landing.
B-52 bomber crash injures crew
MARQUETTE, Mich. — A B-32 bomber crashed on a runway and burst into flames during a training flight early yesterday, injuring all eight crewmen and prompting the ground its fleet of the eating planes.
The Associated Press
She said she anticipated the fleet would be back in the air in 24 hours. "We don't lose many B-2s. It has been a super plane," she said.
The grounding of about 260 B-525 was ordered as a precaution, said Maj. Suzanne Randle, public affairs officer for SAC headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Neh.
The B-52 broke into three parts
about 12.15 a.m. CST during practice “touch-and-go” landings at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, said Sgt. Naomi Siegal, a spokesman at the SAC installation here. In a touch-and-go, the plane immediately takes off again rather than slowing down.
The practice landings followed a seven-hour training flight, officials said.
The crew members crawled or were helped out of the front section of the broken aircraft and none suffered the burns. Senior Airman Tim Sanders
All aircraft exercises at Sawyer were canceled and runwages were closed, said a base spokesman, Tech. Sgt. Anita Bailey. Base officials said
the airfield would remain closed for at least a week. The crashed jet was one of 20 B-28s stationed at Sawyer.
Lt. Col. George Peck, a spokesman for SAC headquarters, said weather did not appear to be a factor in the crash. The National Weather Service said a nearby municipal airport reported conditions at midnight as clear with a temperature of 39 degrees.
Peck said it was normal for B-32 crews to be on training flights at that hour. "Crewes have to be trained to fly at all hours or day or in any night," he said.
Bailey said she did not know who was at the controls at the time of the crash. Capt. Mark Hartney, 29, was
the aircraft commander, but 1st Lt. Michael S. Debruzzi, 26, also was qualified to fly the plane, she said.
Maj. William R. Kroeger, 52, an instructor pilot from Fountain Hills, Ariz. was in serious condition at Marquette General Hospital with chest injuries, said hospital spokesman Ann Parent. Three other crewmen were in satisfactory or stable condition at the hospital, she said.
The eight-engine B-52, which was deployed in the early 1950s, is the military's biggest bomber with a wingspan of 185 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of 488,000 pounds. The last B-52 was commissioned in 1962.
Bush reveals Cabinet positions
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President-elect George Bush, once more calling on friends and government veterans to fill key positions, yesterday selected Texas ollman Robert Mosbacher to be commerce secretary and named Washington lawyer Carla Hills as trade representative.
Bush said he would keep William Webster as CIA director. Bush also named Thomas Pickering, a career diplomat who is U.S. ambassador to Israel, as U.N. ambassador. But Bush said he decided that the U.N. ambassador post would no longer
The vice president, announcing his latest choices at a news conference in the Old Executive Office Building, said he was completing his economic team with the naming of Stanford economist Michael Baskin as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
carry Cabinet-level status.
Bush also said he had decided to "take the offensive" on coming up with a budget strategy that attacked the federal deficit without new taxes. "It is my responsibility to do that. What that means in terms of form, I am not quite sure yet," he said.
BOMB-SALE BAN LIFTED: President Reagan has lifted a six-year ban on U.S. export of cluster bombs to Israel with the understanding that the weapons will not be used against civilian targets, the State Department said yesterday. Reagan banned the sale of such munitions to Israel after that country used them against civilian target areas in Lebanon in violation of Israeli assurances to the United States, it was announced at the time.
PALESTINIANS STRIKE: Israeli troops yesterday shot and wounded eight Arab youths, including a 5-year-old boy, and Palestinians staged a general strike in solidarity with thousands of prisoners jailed during their yearlong uprising. The army, meanwhile, said it was opening an investigation into the death Monday
News Roundup
of a 15-year-old Gaza youth after allegations she was shot deliberately at close range by a soldier.
REACTOR REOPENING REQUIRED: National security needs will require startup of one of the nuclear weapons production reactors at the Savannah River Plant near Aiken, S.C., before long-term safety improvements are completed, according to a Department of Energy report released yesterday. DOE's three reactors at the plant have been shut down due to safety concerns and maintenance needs. They are the nation's only source for tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used in modern nuclear warheads.
SERVICE DECLARED ILLEGAL: Police entered a church sanctuary last night in Johannesburg,
South Africa, and halted a peaceful service dedicated to black anti-apartheid activists convicted of treason and terrorism. Police formed a wall between the pulpit and the audience, which had turned out in support of the 11 activists convicted last month. The Rev. Peter Storey, minister of the church, said police declared the service an illegal gathering.
BAKKER INDICATED: Defrocked evangelist Jim Bakker is "wholly comfortable with the honorable character of the way Heritage USA was operated under his leadership" and will plead innocent to fraud charges, his attorney said yesterday. A federal grand jury Monday indicted Bakker, founder of the PTL ministries, and former aide Richard Dortch on charges of diverting more than $4 million in PTL money to their own use.
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