q
Page 14 - The Michigan Daily - Sunday ,Jur 10, 1984
Cause of b
rocket
failure
mystifies
NASA
(Continued from Page 1)
The two attached vehicles were in an
orbit ranging from 93 miles to 759 miles
above the Earth, NASA officials repor-
ted. The intent was to place the satellite
in a stationary orbit 22,300 miles high.~~
OFFICIALS SAID the rocket and
satellite eventually would burn up from
friction because of the low orbit, but ~
NASA could not estimate when.
The failure occurred when the rocket
was in contact with a tracking station
on Ascension Island in the South Atlan-
tic. It would take several days to fly the
data tapes back from the island, NASA
said. A review board has been set up to DOUG McMAHON/Dail
study the failure.
The International Telecom-
munications Satellite Organization paid Y 'a Ssoo
NASA $60 million to launch the satellite. Above, Nick Stamedianos cooks shish-kebob for Ya'ssoo, the 13th annual Greek festival in Ann Arbor. Ya'ssoo was held
With 12,000 voice channels and two Thursday through yesterday by St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Children dance in traditional costume, below, at
color television channels, it was to have Veterans' Arena yesterday.
joined 15 other satellites currently ser-
ving the 108-nation organization.
"OBVIOUSLY, we're disappointed
about the failure," said Allan Mc-
Caskill, a representative of the inter-
national organization.
He said the organization had insured
the launch for $102 million with a con-
sortium of insurance companies. The
organization paid a $10 million
premium for the insurance.
It was the 62nd launch of an Atlas-
Centaur rocket, but the first for the new
lengthened model. The body of the first-
stage Atlas had been extended 81 inches
allowing the booster to carry an ad-
ditional 15 tons of fuel and to place an
extra 500 pounds in orbit.
The Atlas performed flawlessly
during the 44 minutes it operated
Saturday night.
The Centaur separated successfully
from the Atlas and the upper stage fired }
as planned for 10 minutes, then shut
down and coasted for seven minutes.
During this coast period something
went wrong. When it came time for the
seven-minute refire of the Centaur
rocket, the engine ignited but burned
for only about four seconds before shut-
ting down. At that point, NASA's launch
control center reported the rocket and
satellite were tumbling and there was
no way to save them.
DOUG McMAHON/Doily
I
I
40
0
Corruption
trial of
judge
continues
in Chicago
CHICAGO (UPI) - The two-week
trial of the first judge tried in the
federal "Operation Greylord" in-
vestigation has been a textbook course
in fixes and "bagmen" - lingo
described alleged corruption in the
nation's largest court system.
It has also been spiked with novel
twists, including evidence against a
fellow judge who has not even been
charged in the case.
For days, Cook County Associate
Judge John Murphy sat at the defense
table, scribbling notes as witnesses told
a U.S. District Court jury about fixing
court cases.
Murphy, who is charged with briber-
y in the undercover investigation of
corruption, frequently shook his head
back and forth, indicating he disagreed
with the evidence against him.
He appeared calm - for the first five
days of his trial on mail fraud, extortion
and racketeering charges for allegedly
accepting $3,000 in payoffs between 1981
and 1983.
But on the sixth day, Murphy took the
witness stand in his own defense. By the
seventh day, Murphy's Irish temper
flared.
And it grew worse as U.S. Attorney
Dan Webb spent six hours over the two-
day period grilling Murphy about
secretely tape-recorded conversations
that the government contends prove the
judge was on the take.
MSU students
care for dorms
EAST LANSING, Mich. (UPI) -
Michigan State University students are
leaving for home, and officials say they
are leaving behind much less damage
and litter than in the past.
New rules and the promise of stiff
sanctions have helped, according to
James Wall, director of university
housing programs.
"We have removed the opportunity for
students to get themselves into dif-
ficulty," he said. "We let them know if
they go wild in our halls, they'll pay for
it."
e