LASER SHOT A T DISCOVERY The Michigan Daily -Thursday, June 20,1985-Page 3
Space shuttle works on 'Star Wars' test
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) - A harmless laser ray
fired from a Hawaiian volcano hit the space shuttle Discovery
yesterday but the spaceship was out of position to reflect the
beam back to Earth in a "Star Wars" missile defense test.
"We can see the light," Commander Daniel Brandenstein
reported.
BUT SINCE the ship was not in the proper orientation, a
special eight-inch mirror mounted in a hatch window was un-
able to refelect the laser beam back to Hawaii for analysis as
planned. Mission control said another attempt could be made
Saturday.
The bungled laser experiment followed by more than seven
hours the astronauts' successful launch of their third com-
munications satellite in three days. The Telstar satellite was
reported working normally.
Mission control spokesman John Lawrence in Houston said
the shuttle was 180 degrees out of positon for the laser test
because of a "bad number" fed into the ship's computerized
control system. The astronauts later said the number in their
flight plan was in feet when it should have been in nautical
miles.
THE BLUE beam of light flashed skyward from an Air For-
ce laser facility 9,000 feet up Mt. Haleakala on the island of
Maui. Lawrence said the test engineers reported the shuttle
was illumated by the laser.
Although the beam started out thinner than a pencil, it was
expected to be 15 feet wide when it hit the shuttle, speeding at
17,500 miles an hour 230 miles in space.
Brandenstein, co-pilot John Creighton and crewmates Shan-
non Lucid, Steven Nagel, John Fabian, Frenchman Patrick
Baudry and Prince Sultan Salman Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia had
been assured earlier that the laser was too weak to harm the
eyes, even if they looked at it for a protracted period.
IT WAS an experiment to see if the argon laser beam gun
could overcome the distortions of Earth's murky atmosphere
and pinpoint a 17,500 mph space object 246 miles away.
Such a technioue could eventually be used to direct blasts
from much more powerful lasers at huge orbiting mirrors,
which in turn would beam the destructive energy toward
enemy missiles in flight.
The experiment was the first known space test of missile
killer technology being developed in President Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative.
In Moscow, the Soviet Union criticized the experiment,
saying the "Star Wars space-craft" was at the front line of
American plans to militarize space.
"The Pentagon's 'Star Wars' spacecrafts pose serious
danger, for they are the basic element in the system ... inten-
ded to carry out U.S. adventuristic plans to create attack
space weapons and to turn outer-space into a zone of combat
operations," said the military newspaper Red Star.
The Communist Party newspaper Pravda said in contrast to
the American program, two Soviet cosmonauts currently
aboard the orbiting Salyut 7 space station are working for the
"henefit of science and peace."
The 1,438-pound Telstar satellite, owned by American
Telephone & Telegraph, was pushed by a set of springs out of
the shuttle's cargo bay and 45 minutes later a rocket fired to
push it towarda 22,300-mile-high stationary orbit.
"Sound to me like it's three up and three away, side's
retired," said Robert Springer in mission control.
Profound conformity
An aspiring writer has spread his ideas by painting the side of a building near Kana restaurant on East Huron.
Daily Photo by DAN HABIB
a
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) - A smashed windows and damaged (
k2wbooby-trapped car exploded on a buildings 50 yards from the bomb site
of Tripoli yesterday, killing more than wounded 15 others, police said,.na
lu l d crowded seafront in the northern port - killed more than 20 people and2j0 1 eoTrplystdakligmethnwu ed 5ohrs olc si.
20 people and wounding 15 others, Christian-run Voice of Lebanon radio oa n ' s 1 IDN N E
1 - g -* pelice said. said more than 30 people were killed 114j(If s M
pflr 3 o rerip o li Police said the car packed with and 70 were wounded.
some 110 pounds of TNT detonated in Aberbach adds that much of
front of a sweet shop during Tripoli has been the scene of several (CotinuedromPage1) Reagan's initial success and later
1 0celebrations for the end of holy month bloody car-bombings in the last year, popularity for a modern president. levelling off is due to changes in the
eX xfliO~Oii of Ramadan, hurling people and most directed against offices and of- But Markus also believes that "the makeup of Congress.
passing vehicles into the ficials of the Moslem fundamentalist Teflon notion is now defunct." Many He says that in 1980, when Reagan
Mediterranean. Tawheed militia led by "Prince" had said that Reagan was made of took office, there was a significant
The powerful blast - which Saaed Shabaan. Teflon because he wasn't held accoun- turnover in Congress with the
table for his administration's Republicans taking control of the
msarkesdosntbleeha Senate and more conservative
Defense contractors face investigation Mrks does not believe that Democratsentering the House. Also,
Reagan's controversial visit to the new committee chairmen and staffs
WASHINGTON (UPI) - A House ternational Corp. substitution, security compromises, Bitburg cemetery in Germany is the were easier for the president to deal
subcommittee chairman disclosed Others being investigated, accor- defective pricing, cost duplication and sole cause of increase in his with, he said.
yesterday all of the nation'so10 largest ding to the list include in order of false claims. vulnerability to public opinion. But in 1982, Aberbach said,
defense contractors face federal size the Lockheed Corp., fourth In a letter to colleagues on his "There's a danger with overinter- Reagan lost his advantage when the
criminal investigations and said that biggest defense contractor in fiscal House Energy and Commerce sub- preting a single event," Markus said. committee chairmen and staff began
mischarging taxpayers is "a way of 1914; the Hosing Co., Inc., General committee supporting congressional "I think it's a growing knowledge of to challenge him.
life throughout the defense industry.'' Electric Co., United Technologies reforms, Dingell said, "The list of series of moves and misstatements - Hall says that usually in a
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich) Corp., Raytheon Co. and Litton In- major contractors released today that'sgoingagainsthim." president's second term, he gets a
released a list provided by Pentagon dustries Inc. Sherick testified to the makes it clear that the types of According to Prof. John Kingdon, surge of support immediately after
InspectorInGeneralckJosephiedherick
Inspector General Joseph Sherick panel recently that the seventh violations found in the General chairman of the University's political the election. "But clearly I don't think
revealing the general nature of largest contractor, Howard Hughes Dynamics case are a way of life science department, Reagan's he's enjoyed the kind of support in his
ongoing criminal inquiries into 36 of 45 Medical Institute, faces a grand jury throughout the defense industry. leverage in Congress has been last six months that he enjoyed at the
companies being probed by his office i sti faegd r weakening since midway through his beginning of his first term," he said.
and the inspectors general of the istiain for aleged i whe tcy first term in office. Hall explains that this is because
various military services. The other mischarging, the aide said, are challenged on such issues, they Kingdon says that when a president there is now a low turnover rate in
nine firms are supposedly unaware The investigations listed as of May 1 were acceptable and the charges is first elected to office, there is a Congress.
they are under investigation, a focus on allegations such as cost iperiod of good will when Congress Kingdon says that all two-term
Dingell aide said. mischarging, labor mischarging, againstthemimproper. goes along with his initiatives, presidents have had the same
Besides General Dynamics Corp., false claims, bribery and bid rigging. "This is typical of the 'catch-me-if- Kingdon says that in the first year of problem as Reagan: The initial surge
the third largest contractor, which you-can' approach we have so often his first term, Reagan did "a of support levels off in their second
faces several much-publicized in- According to the list, General seen," Dingell wrote. "The Pentagon beautiful job" of pushing through a term. Kingdon wouldn't speculate on
vestigations, those named included Dynamics is under Pentagon in- simply must get tough with its par- series of bills. the outcome of Reagan's pet initiative
the nation's largest defense contrac- vestigation _ for alleged cost tners in industry so as to end this "But a president's capital of his second term - a tax reform -
tor, the McDonnell Douglas Corp., mischarging, subcontractor kick- bizarre behavior and stem the deteriorates with time," Kingdon but he said that "pulling it off" would
and the No. 2 contractor, Rockwell In- backs, labor mischarging, product hemorrhage of taxpayers' money." said. be "extremely difficult."
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