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Shuttle launch draws little notice;
critics question NASA’s direction
■ NASA’s shuttle program
is under scrutiny as critics
question costs and benefits.
BY VICKY ECKENRODE
STAFF WRITER
While NASA successfully launched
the space shuttle Columbia on Tuesday
for its seventh mission this year, experts
said the entire space program was threat
ened by numerous problems.
Alex Roland, a professor at Duke
University and former NASA historian,
called the shuttle missions a waste of
money. NASA should instead develop a
new and more efficient launch vehicle,
he said. “The space shuttle is old and
expensive to send up.”
Dela, a senior who asked that her last
name not be used, watched the launch on
CNN at Union Station in the Student
Union. She questioned the amount of
IN THE NEWS
Top stories from the state, nation ansi world
Commuter planes collide;
13 total die in explosion
QUINCY, 111. Two commuter
planes collided on a runway and ex
ploded into a fireball Tuesday, killing all
13 people aboard both aircraft.
A United Express plane with nine
passengers and two crew members col
lided with a smaller commuter plane
carrying two people at Baldwin Munici
pal Airport, officials said. There were no
survivors.
Witnesses told WGEM radio in
Quincy that both planes were enveloped
in a ball of fire after colliding shortly after
5 p.m.
Mike Coultas, a private pilot who was
arriving at the airport when the crash
occurred, told CNN the larger plane was
landing on one runway as the other was
preparing to takeoff from another run
way.
“I kept thinking to myself ‘I can’t
believe this aircraft on Runway 4 does
not see the other aircraft,’” which was
landing, Coultas said.
“Just about the time I got to the fence
to park my car the two aircraft impacted
at the intersections of the two runways
and then exploded into a ball of flames, ”
Coultas added.
Don Zochert, a spokesman for the
Federal Aviation Administration, said
the United Express plane was a Beech
1900 aircraft. Police said the plane was
coming in from Burlington, lowa.
Adams County Sheriff Bob Noll said
the other plane was a King Aire 200, and
was believed to be from the St. Louis
area.
Chunnel fire injures 8 f
train service shut down
CALAIS, France lt was the
Chunnel builders’ nightmare intense
flames and deadly fumes choking the 31 -
mile tunnel used to whisk passengers and
freight beneath the English Channel.
Eight people, including a pregnant
woman, were overcome by smoke when
fire broke out Monday night on a truck
being hauled to Britain on a freight train.
It was the first serious accident since
the tunnel linking Britain and France
opened two years ago. Service was halted
and could take three weeks to be fully
restored.
None of the injuries were life-threat-
LOTS
FROM PAGE 1
of the time,” Turner said. “I lock my
doors, but I look around and see a lot of
nicer cars than mine so I’m really not
worried.”
Council member Joe Capowski said
Park & Ride was not constructed to be
used as an overnight place to store a car.
Capowski said only after spaces became
available did the town start renting spaces.
“Park & Ride lots were not designed
forovemightuse, and the primary reason
to build the lots was for commuters who
are driving far and need a place to park
for the day,” he said. “We do rent to
UNC students to store their cars, but it is
definitely not the primary use of Park &
Ride.”
Cousins said people can take many
precautions to protect their car from a
break-in.
"Never leave anything valuable inyour
car, that’s number one,” Cousins said.
“Always lock your car and try to park in
a lighted area.”
Goff said she advised women to take
particular care about the safety of their
cars.
“No space after dark is really safe for
a woman, especially parking lots,” Goff
said. “For women, parking lots at night
are always a safety issue.”
government funds that NASA receives.
“I can think of better uses for the money
that they’re using on the space shuttle
program,” she said.
The space program is an important
tool for research and technological de
velopment, argued Michael Brachus,
public affairs director for NASA.
“The space program is what put us in
the forefront of technology in the world, ”
he said. “Columbia is holding two pay
loads that will deploy satellites.”
Brachus also said the space program
was a major employer and without it the
economy would be worse off.
The shuttle launches are not as ac
tively watched as they used to be because
of a general decline in public interest,
Roland said. “The shuttle mission is the
same thing month after month and year
after year,” he said. “Nothing’s happen
ing.”
Kristen Sipe, a freshman from
Mayden, said Columbia’s launch was
not a remarkable event for her. “Watch
ening. But the fire was a terrifying ex
ample of what can happen despite
elaborate safety precautions and frequent
security drills in this man-made engi
neering wonder beneath the sea.
“Another five or 10 minutes longer,
we’d have all been carried out in bags,”
said truck driver Brian Shilton, one of 34
people evacuated from the tunnel.
“It just filled up with smoke so quick it
wasjust unbelievable. Everyone was vom
iting and choking, and we all thought it
was going to be the end,” he said. “It was
like being in a tomb.”
The fire broke out at 9:45 p.m. 11
miles into the westbound tunnel —one
of three tunnel corridors —and roughly
a third of the way through the trip from
Coquelles, France, to Folkestone, En
gland.
The freight train was carrying 29
trucks, 31 passengers and three crew
members. The tunnel, called the Chunnel,
shut down immediately. Eurotunnel said
it hoped to reopen partial service some
time Wednesday, but full service could
take three weeks to restore.
FDA orders more accurate
milk nutrition labels, ads
WASHINGTON The Food and
Drug Administration ordered milk la
bels changed Tuesday to give Americans
a better idea of how much fat is in that
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ing the space shuttle go up just isn’t
something that’s new and exciting to me
anymore,” she said.
Shuttle missions like Columbia’s 16-
day orbit are the ones affected by con
gressional budget cuts, Roland said.
“They’re being pinched pretty severely,”
he said.
However, NASA’s funds earmarked
for building a space station are not threat
ened by the budget cuts, Roland said.
“Congress made a commitment to
fund the space station,” he said. “So the
plans for the space station are preserved. ”
Brachus said focusing on the space
station was the new direction for the
space program. “The goal for human
manned space flights will be to begin
building of the international space sta
tion,” he said.
Columbia’s launch proved to be a
record-breaker. One of Columbia’s as
tronauts was 61 -year-old Story Musgrave,
who became the oldest person ever in
space.
morning glass.
Those jugs of 2-percent milk that now
are labeled “low-fat” will be renamed
“reducedfat.” Only 1 percent milk can be
called “low-fat,” while skim milk, the
healthiest choice, can be advertised as
“fat-free” or “nonfat” milk.
The change comes after consumer
advocates complained that Americans
were misled into believing milk with 2-
percent fat was healthier than it actually
is.
Two-percent milk certainly is better
for adults cutting their fat intake than
whole milk, which contains 3.3 percent
fat. (Whole milk still is recommended as
the best choice for young children.)
But the government in 1973 allowed
2-percent milk to be advertised as “low
fat,” even though it contains 5 grams of
fat in every 8-ounce glass. And Congress
in 1990 allowed milk to keep that label
even though the FDA defined a low-fat
food as one with no more than 3 grams of
fat per serving.
Yeltsin returning to duties
as his health improves
MOSCOW—President Boris Yeltsin
has been holding meetings, taking walks
and even enjoyed a sauna, and he’s likely
to leave the Kremlin hospital this week
for a nearby health resort, his spokesman
said Tuesday. ■
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Instructor Tracey Allman, finalist in the National Shag Championship, teaches Robin Grubbs some basic moves as
Hadley Horne looks on at The Shag Workshop in the Alumni Center on Tuesday evening.
Yeltsin met for more than 90 minutes
Tuesday with Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin at the Kremlin hospital
where he’s recuperating from Nov. 5
quintuple heart-bypass surgery.
Doctors have said it still will be several
weeks before the president is likely to
return to his Kremlin office full time.
Yeltsin’s office has released photo
graphs of the president, who appears to
have lost weight during his illness.
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SHAGGING THE NIGHT AWAY
He has not appeared publicly since the
surgery, although he may make a radio
ortelevision address sometime this week,
his spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky,
said at a news conference.
Yastrzhembsky said Yeltsin likely will
move this week from the hospital to
Barvikha resort, where he has spent much
ofhis time since suffering a renewed bout
of heart trouble at the end of June.
“On Saturday, he spent half a day in
Wednesday, November 20,1996
Barvikha and he even took a sauna there.
... He takes walks practically every day,”
he said.
Meanwhile, a newspaper reported
Tuesday that Yeltsin’s official plane, an
Ilyushin-96-300, has been renovated on
the inside to include intensive-care equip
ment.
Komsomolskaya Pravda did not say
what devices will be on board.
FROM WIRE REPORTS
7