Columbia passes first
trial with flying colors
By ROBERT LOCKE
Associated Press Writer
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) Space
shuttle Columbia, brilliantly and gracefully, passed her first
trial by spaceflight yesterday, sailing hypersonic through the
heat of re-entry to a wheels down, center-stripe landing on a
sunbaked desert runway
The moment of triumph 1:22 p.m. EST belonged to
astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, who inaugurated
a revolutionary space transportation system with a mission
lasting two days, 6 1 / 2 hours.
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Capt. Robert Crippen leads his wife Virginia off a NASA
jet following Cmdr. John Young and his wife Suzy as they
arrive at California's Ellington Air Force Base yesterday
after the astronauts successfully landed the space shuttle
Columbia.
Consumers
By JAN CORWIN
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
American automobile manufacturers are in
trouble. With gasoline prices at $1.30 a gallon,
consumers are looking for fuel-efficiency, and
abandoning the American tradition of big, luxu
rious cars
Unfortunately for domestic car manufactur
ers, the most efficient producers of Small cars are
foreign countries, particularly Japan. So it comes
as no surprise that Chrysler Corporation's new
fuel-efficient K-cars were billed as "a matter of
corporate survival."
Of Detroit's big three General Motors, Ford
and Chrysler it is the latter that has made the
headlines since the government bailed it out in
1979.
Frank Uller, business and strategy plans man
ager for Chrysler, last week told the Marketing
Club that long planning time and difficulty in
forecasting economic conditions and consumer
tastes can cause even the most carefully-planned
;.I.o**
At the helm
Chris Calkins and Karen Graylin began their terms as president and vice president of the Association of Residence Hall
Students last night. Calkins and Gavlin replace former ARHS executives Fran Kenawell and Maryann Deno. See story on
' ,wO,l
the
daily
The shuttle, two years delayed, a $lO-billion question mark,
a white and black ship with the American flag on its left side,
landed precisely as scheduled.
"You can't believe what a flying machine this is!" Young
exulted. "It's really something special."
As he left the shuttle, he looked over the ship's lifesaver
thermal tiles, and punched the air with gusto.
Young and Crippen made history: They were the first ever
to return from space without having to splashdown in water,
'American-style, or bounce on the ground, as the Russians do it.
After landing, the astronauts fidgeted in their cockpit for an
hour while ground crews made sure no dangerous gases
lingered.
"If we're going to get this thing operational, this is one of
the parts we're going to have to work on a little more," Young
kidded Shuttle Control. "Do you realize we could have gone a
whole orbit?" He was two-thirds right. An orbit Columbia
made 36 of them takes about 90 minutes.
Both Young and Crippen moved down the steps of the
portable ramp with a bounce in their step and broad'smiles on
their faces. Young impulsively circled the front of the ship on a
personal inspection tour. He liked what he saw, jabbed the air
in delight and flashed a thumbs up to recovery crew.
The "astrovan" took the astronauts to a nearby space
agency facility for physical examination, although froth ap
pearances they were the healthiest as well as the happiest of
men. For the next week, the astronauts will undergo extensive
debriefings as experts evaluate the ship's maiden flight.
"I think we've got a fantastic and remarkable capability
here," Young said at a brief welcoming ceremony. "We really
are not to far in the human race from going to the stars and
Bob and I are mighty proud to have been part of this
revolution "
Wei§
And Crippen, a space veteran at last, said that "as the
rookie of the group, I can say that waiting 12 years to get my
flight in space was really worth it. I'll go stand in line for
another 12 years if that is what it will take, but I don't think it
will. I think we're back in the space business to stay."
Then the two astronauts were flown in NASA planes to the
space center in Houston. Flight One of STS-1 (the official title
of the shuttle, Space Transportation System One) was an
astounding success. .
A message awaited the crew from President Reagan in
Washington: "Your brave adventure has opened a new era in
space travel . . . You p2ut new worlds within closer reach and
more knowledge within our grasp."
opt. -. . - for : . -- ma118.r . .645 , t5;10i/vrer - :fuel.bilis
cars to'be failures witness the 1958 Edsel.
Chrysler's K-car was a $2.8 million, six-year
project which Chusler expects to account for 60
percent of its sales in the next few years.
analysis
But are fluctuations in the economy and fickle
consumer tastes the only reasons why Chrysler
and Ford recently went before the International
Trade Commission to seek tariff protection?.Or is
it why the government would like to negotiate
voluntary export restraints on small cars with
Japan the acknowledged top competitor in the
small car market? . .
Uller said that during the second energy crisis,
in 1979, the car market shifted rapidly as consum
ers gave up big cars in favor of smaller, fuel
efficient ones. American auto makers, producing
olle • lan
Only large cars, were suddenly faced with a loss of
market and increased competition from foreign
manufactuiers of small cars.
What was happening, according to associate
professor of economics Mack Ott, was the merg
ing of two markets —the large car market in the
United States and the small car market in Europe
—that until 1973 had been almost completely
separate.
The situation is both simple and complex, but,
as Ott explained, the car developed different uses
in the two markets. In Europe, cities are closer,
streets are narrower and mass transit is inexpen
sive, so small cars were used for short trips.
In the United States, cities are farther apart,
streets are wider and mass transit does not really
compete with the automobile, so Americans de
manded larger cars that were comfortable and
more suited to long trips, he said.
"What maintained this separation of markets
was inexpensive gasoline," Ott said. From 1948 to
1968, gasoline prices rose at about the same rate
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UPI wlrephold
The space shuttle Columbia settled down for a supersonic, super-successful landing yesterday after its maiden flight. In the
background is a small chase plane. Heat waves rising from the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base distort the NASA
hanger in the background.
The Soviet Union, too, took note of the successful voyage of
a ship that someday will carry defense satellites aloft.
The news agency Tass said the flight was "of special
significance, not so much for research and academic organiza
tion, as for the Pentagon."
Enormous crowds, estimated at 170,000, came to the desert
in cars and campers to cheer Columbia to its finale. Flags by
the thousands waved the ship in; the desert was bathed in a
brilliant mid-morning sun. Chase planes were aloft to escort
the shuttle in and tephotograph the moment.
The,flight director, Donald Puddy, gave Shuttle Control in
Houston "15 seconds of whoopee," and told then to get back to
work on urgent post-landing checks.
Joe Allen, the control room's radio contact with the space
craft, assured the astronauts that their test was "Beautiful.
Beautiful."
"Do we have to take it to the. hangar, Joe,?" asked Young
after the ship came to a stop. ,
"We have to dust,it off first," Allen replied.
The astronauts came out of a 15-minute communications
New race with Moscow
U.S. gave more supplies to
WASHINGTON (AP) The United
States already this year has shipped
more tons of weapons to El Salvador's
junta than the overall amount which
leftist guerrillas have received from So
viet-bloc countries, according to govern
ment figures.
The Defense Department said yester
day that from Jan. 1 to the present, the
United States has sent 343.2 tons of mili
tary supplies to El Salvador. Earlier, the
State Department estimated that the
guerrillas had received 200 tons of Soviet
bloc weapons.
That figure applied to covert ship
ments, mostly late last year and through
January's failed "general offensive,"
but since then, the State Department
says, the communist flow has dwindled
to an insignificant trickle.
The U.S. military aid is also only a
fraction of assistance ranging from
helicopters to radios to M-16 automatic
rifles currently in the pipeline for El
Salvador.
"There's a heckuva lot more in terms
of money" to come, said Lt. Col. Jerry
Grahowski, a Pentagon spokesman.
The weapons shipments counted in the
Defense Department report include the
$5 million in emergency assistance re
leased by former President Jimmy Car
ter in January and about $4 million of the
$25 million in aid promised by President
Reagan, Grahowski said.
That would leave about $2l million in
aid still to be sent to the junta.
In its Feb. 23 "white paper," the State
Department charged Soviet-bloc coun-
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as other prices. But from 1968 to 1973, gasoline
prices rose more slowly than the general price
index
"It wasn't the case that U.S. producers could
not produce an automobile of smaller dimensions
it was just that the market was not demanding
it," Ott said.
U.S. producers were successfully competing in
Europe with their foreign-built cars, such as GM's
German-made Opel, which was later imported to
the United States. But there was no reason for
domestic auto manufacturers to change their
production patterns until 1973, when the oil em
bargo sent gasoline prices skyrocketing.
"Even if the government had not done any
thing, the domestic producers would have been in
trouble for awhile," Ott said; because changing
over to the production of smaller cars would have
been costly. . _ _
But the government did step in, imposing price
controls on petroleum, regulations on automobile
pollution control and safety features and mileage
tries had pledged nearly 800 tons of
military aid to the guerrillas and that 200
tons had actually been received, largely
through Cuba and Nicaragua.
Accusing "communist powers" of "in
direct armed aggression," the Reagan
administration announced the sending of
20 additional U.S. military advisers to El
Salvador bringing the total to 56 and
the dispatching of $25 million in U.S.
weapons and equipment.
Critics of the "white paper," however,
note the State Department presents no
firm evidence that the 200 tons in alleged
Soviet-bloc aid ever reached the tiny
Central American nation.
And they say even if the 200 tons did
arrive, it is a relatively small amount of
equipment that would last the insurgents
for only a couple of weeks of fighting.
Grahowski conceded that 200 tons
would . be used up "rather quickly" in
continuous fighting, but said the guerril
las appear to be conserving their supply
of weapons by avoiding major battles.
In another development, State Depart
ment officials said privately they are
skeptical of the explanation from Salva
doran authorities on how about two dozen
people were killed last week in a San
Salvador suburb.
The treasury police, who reportedly
were involved in the killings, told U.S.
officials that the deaths resulted from a
gun battle which began when guerrillas
opened fire on police. Eyewitnesses,
however, said the police dragged the
victims from their homes and shot them.
A State Department official, who asked
15°
Wednesday April 15, 1981
Vol. 81, No. 151 24 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University
blackout, the most danger-filled time, with a tension-breaking
message for the shuttle team: "Hello Houston, Columbia
•
here."
"You're coming right down the chute," Houston said.
"you're coming right down the track." They were and they
stayed exactly on target. , -
Down, down, the Columbia went, dipping first to one side;
then another. From a hypersonic speed in space it went to
supersonic and then to subsonic.
Two sonic booms exploded over the Rogers Dry Lake. •
"Looking beautiful," Allen said. And she was.
The ship rolled to a stop on the Rogers Dry Lake runway on
the Mojave Desert, right on the runway centerline. It had been
aloft exactly 2 days 6 hours, 20 minutes and 52 seconds.
"Welcome home Columbia," Allen said.
- -
From Johnson Space Center director Christopher Kraft,
who hopes to send Columbia up for test flight No. 2 in
September, "We just got infinitely smarter."
standards on domestic producers.
The result, Ott said, was that the gasoline price
controls removed the incentive for consumers to
give up their large cars, while the auto regula
tions forced manufacturers to produce smaller
cars at a time when the market was not ready for
small cars.
And as Uller pointed out, the timing of product
introduction is critical to product survival. The
Honda Civic, introduced in 1974, gained a substan
tial foothold in the market because it came off the
assembly line during the oil embargo, when
consumers were looking for fuel-efficient cars.
When Chrysler started planning the K-car in
1977, gasoline was 66 cents a gallon, the prime
rate was 6.8 percent and the consumer confidence
index was 86.8. By 1979, the year of Chrysler's
near-bankruptcy, gas was $l.OB a gallon, the
prime rate was 12.7 percent, and the consumer
confidence index had dropped to 66.
eip4
See related story on Page 4:
Continued on Page 16.
El Salvador
not to be named, said U.S. officials were
"tending to doubt" the treasury police
story and believe that the police probably
"overreacted" to shots fired at a 21-man
police force when it moved into the area.
inside
Your tax returns are due today
• State College municipality
takes over operation of Centre Cab
from the Centre Area Transporta
tion Authority today Page 6
• The Phildilelphia Flyers beat
the Quebec Nordiques to win their
first round Stanley Cup playoff
series game Page 8
• WDFM's weekly Comedy
Show features original collegiate,
humor Page 17
weather
Bright sunshine today along with
breezy and cool conditions •and a
high near 54. Clear, calm and cold
tonight with a low of 31. After a
chilly start tomorrow, sunshine wijt
produce a quick warmup, push
temperatures to unseasonably mild
levels in the upper 60s. Consider
able cloudiness and continued mild
Friday, with showers possible.
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