The Challenger explosion theories focus on the space shuttle’s right-hand booster rocket, according to a source close to the inquiry into the accident. The solid-fuel rocket suddenly lost power 10 seconds before the shuttle exploded, the source said, and officials are inclined to believe that this indicates flame burned through the rocket’s side and then through the skin of the external fuel tank. Fire erupting in the external fuel tank was believed to have led to the explosion that took the lives of the seven astronauts on board, the source added. At liftoff the external fuel tank holds 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which when mixed together are very explosive. Under control, combustion of the explosive mixture propels the rocket. Additional data supporting the theory that the oxygen line was ruptured were sent back from the Challenger, the source said. The data showed, he said, that the three main shuttle engines, which burn liquid fuel from the external tank, shut down almost immediately after the drop in the booster rocket’s power. The data sent from the spacecraft and recorded on the ground were said to have showed specifically that the solid booster suffered a pressure drop of just under 30 pounds per square inch and a loss of about 100,000 pounds of its 2.5 million pounds of thrust. In addition to the three engines of the shuttle stopping immediately, the source said, the ground data show that the nozzles of those three engines and of both solid-rocket boosters swiveled to one side as the steering mechanisms sought to correct the course change produced by the uneven rocket thrust.
The President and First Lady fly to Houston to attend a memorial for the Astronauts who lost their lives in the Space Shuttle Challenger accident.
President Reagan mourned the loss of “our seven Challenger heroes” today, paying tribute to their “brave sacrifice” and pledging to honor them with a renewed national commitment to the conquest of space. “Sometimes when we reach for the stars, we fall short,” Mr. Reagan said quietly in a solemn outdoor memorial ceremony at the Johnson Space Center before an audience of thousands, including relatives and colleagues of the fallen crew of the space shuttle. “But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain.” As many in the audience dabbed their eyes with handkerchiefs, the President said: “Man will continue his conquest of space. To reach out for new goals and even greater achievements, that is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes.”
The ceremony, a farewell to the crew of the spaceship that exploded Tuesday, was marked by heavy emotion. After Mr. Reagan’s address on a cool, sun-drenched morning at the space center, the band from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio played “America the Beautiful.” People in the audience began to sing, tentatively at first, then with fervor, many with tears rolling down their cheeks. As the band played “God Bless America,” NASA T-38 jets flew overhead in what is called the Missing Man Formation, with one plane missing, and many of the wives, children and relatives of the Challenger crew, seated in the first row, dissolved into tears and choking sobs. The President, in a black suit, white shirt and dark tie, appeared ashen and bit his lip during the 20-minute ceremony. As June Scobee, wife of the mission’s commander, sobbed, Nancy Reagan firmly held her hand. The President, in his remarks, spoke of the loss of the crew as a tragedy affecting their families and, especially, their children. He also spoke of profound shock to the nation and hope for the future. “Dick, Mike, Judy, El, Ron, Greg and Christa, your families and your country mourn your passing,” said the President. “We bid you goodbye, but we will never forget you.”
Regan writes in his diary:
“At 8:45 on way to Andrews. A.F.1 taking us to Houston for memorial service to Astronauts. Met with families at N.A.S.A. Center — an emotional time. Then out to join some 14,000 people which included all the employees, familys etc. of the entire space center. Nancy & I sat between Mrs. Scobee — wife of leader of the Challenger crew & Mrs. Smith widow of one of the crew. It was a hard time for all the families & all we could do was hug them & try to hold back our tears.”
Cameras on the ocean floor were photographing and videotaping a sunken object to determine whether it came from the space shuttle Challenger. The search was made 40 miles east of Daytona Beach, in the same area where the Coast Guard Thursday found five large floating pieces of the shuttle. One fragment was a clearly identifiable section of the right side of the fuselage, adjacent to the crew compartment. On that section the word “Rescue” was clearly visible, along with a yellow arrow pointing to a small hatch door to be used by the crew for escape in emergency landings at land or sea. The door is below the mid-deck section of the crew compartment, only about six feet from where Gregory B. Jarvis, a mission specialist on the flight, was seated.
The Spanish Government announced today that a long-awaited referendum on whether Spain should remain a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would be held on March 12. The Socialist Government also released the crucial wording of the question to the public. The referendum has raised great concern within NATO and the Reagan Administration because a decision by Spain to withdraw could set an uncomfortable precedent for other members whose continued membership is regarded as shaky. Greece is one such member. Spain joined NATO four years ago. Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez has said he favors staying in the alliance. But polls show it will be an uphill battle because many Spaniards link NATO to American domination. The Prime Minister promised the referendum in his election campaign four years ago but later delayed the vote.
A retired member of the French Air Force has been arrested and charged with spying for the Soviet Union, the Interior Ministry announced today. French officials are said to believe that the man who was arrested was giving information to Soviet intelligence agents about the movement of French naval vessels around the Brest naval port, where France has based submarines carrying nuclear missiles since 1972. The suspect, Bernard Sourisseau, 44 years old, described as a retired air force helicopter mechanic, was arrested about a week ago by agents of France’s counterespionage police.
The Reagan Administration has put off indefinitely the pending sale of a $1.9 billion air-defense package for Jordan to avoid a virtually certain blocking of the deal by Congress, Administration and Congressional sources said today. The decision, which President Reagan made at the urging of his political advisers, was described by State Department officials as a disappointment to Secretary of State George P. Shultz. Mr. Shultz had said that the sale, which had already been postponed once, was crucial as a show of American encouragement for King Hussein’s efforts to begin peace talks with Israel. Although Administration officials said they still hoped to be able to offer the arms package if the stalemate on peace talks can be ended, they acknowledged that it was unlikely the issue will be raised again this year.
A South Korean diplomat was kidnapped at gunpoint today as he drove to his country’s embassy in predominantly Muslim West Beirut, a Lebanese Army official said. The army official, Col. Mounir Maalouli, who heads a special security force for diplomats, identified the South Korean as Do Chae Sung, a second secretary at the embassy. He said five gunmen had intercepted Mr. Do’s station wagon 50 yards from the embassy in a seaside residential quarter. He said the gunmen shot out the front tires of the diplomat’s car, forced him into their own car and fled. No group immediately took responsibility for the kidnapping.
The new Marxist “collective leadership” that took power in South Yemen after nearly two weeks of bitter factional fighting says that rather than being hardline, it wants to continue the policy of improving relations with its more conservative Arab neighbors. “We will make our best efforts to consolidate our relations with our brothers in Northern Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council,” the Provisional President, Haider Abu Bakr al-Attas, said this evening in an interview with four foreign journalists. The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Attas, who had been Prime Minister and was on a trip abroad when the fighting broke out January 13, outlined what he called an “international good neighbor policy.” His remarks came in one of a series of interviews with key leaders who survived and emerged victorious from the fighting, which destroyed much of this seaport capital and decimated the upper ranks of the ruling Yemeni Socialist Party.
Pope John Paul II arrived here this morning for a 10-day visit to India that has aroused protests from Hindu fundamentalists, despite the Pope’s insistence that he is intent on preaching tolerance and harmony. The Pope was greeted by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President Zail Singh. The journey, the Pope’s 29th foreign tour, will take him 12,500 miles across the subcontinent to 14 cities in 10 days. The visit will highlight one of John Paul’s central goals, the need to carry Roman Catholicism to the third world, particularly in largely non-Catholic Asia and Africa.
An attempt by a dissident faction to overthrow the leaders of a major Cambodian rebel organization is faltering, apparently for lack of support from Cambodian exiles and their international backers, according to Cambodian guerrillas and Thai officials. A spokesman for the group, the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, the larger of two non-Communist organizations battling to oust the Vietnamese from Cambodia, said today that a monthlong public power struggle between the dissidents and the front’s leader and founder, Son Sann, was likely to be resolved “very soon.” Sangwar de Lopez, who represents the National Liberation Front in Washington, but who has been in Thailand for the last two months to try to mediate the dispute, said in an interview today that Mr. Son Sann had met this week with General Sak Supsakhan, a leader of the front’s guerrilla army, and that the talks had gone well.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos said in an interview Friday that he expected that whoever loses the presidential election next week would challenge the results. “In this country nobody ever concedes,” he said. “We’re bad losers in the Philippines.” The President, who is running against Corazon C. Aquino, said a challenge to the results could possibly delay the inauguration of the winner. Philippine presidents are usually sworn in within 10 days after the official proclamation of the winner by the National Assembly. Should Mr. Marcos lose to Mrs. Aquino, the widow of the slain opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., he would remain as President until she took the oath of office. “If the election is fair and honest, if they don’t use violence, there will be no protest,” Mr. Marcos said in the interview, which was held in his office. “But of course, your reaction is always a protest.”
A state of siege in Haiti was declared by President Jean-Claude Duvalier, who went on national radio to refute widespread rumors — and an erroneous White House report — that his 15-year-old government had fallen and that he had fled the country. The erroneous information that the 34-year-old President had fled followed a week of tumultuous anti-government demonstrations. “The President is here,” Mr. Duvalier said in the colorful Creole language of Haiti, “strong, firm as a monkey’s tail.” The phrase is a common Creole expression. On Thursday, State Department officials said they had decided to take steps to block about $7 million in direct aid to Haiti because of human rights abuses.
An erroneous announcement today by the chief White House spokesman that the Government of Haiti had collapsed led to a day of confusion and conflict between the White House and the State Department. The spokesman, Larry Speakes, made the announcement about 7:30 A.M. to reporters traveling on Air Force One as it carried President Reagan and his party to Houston for the memorial service for the dead astronauts. Late this afternoon, Mr. Speakes blamed the State Department for the mistake. “We were given bum information by people who ought to know what they say,” he said. State Department officials, who declined to be quoted by name, criticized Mr. Speakes, saying he had made a premature announcement on the basis of limited information that department officials had not had time to check and analyze. But the State Department did acknowledge that it had initially sent a report to the White House that the Government of President Jean-Claude Duvalier had fallen. A senior department official said this initial report was swiftly followed by subsequent messages saying Mr. Duvalier was still in power. But by that time, both White House and State Department officials agree, Mr. Speakes had already made the announcement aboard Air Force One.
The Honduran armed forces commander, General Walter Lopez Reyes, decided today to retain his post. General Lopez’s decision was announced a day after he said he would resign, an army statement said. The statement said the general had reconsidered his decision and would complete his term, which is due to expire next year, “for the sake of the country’s well-being and peace.” General Lopez has backed United States support for rebels seeking the overthrow of the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua. He had said he would resign because of “fatigue.”
A United Nations official has denied allegations that tens of thousands of famine victims have died because of Ethiopian efforts to resettle them. The official, Maurice Strong, executive coordinator of relief operations in Africa, said at a news conference Wednesday that the reports were a “gross misrepresentation.” His comments came after a report by Doctors Without Borders, a Paris-based private relief group, that more Ethiopians were dying as a result of resettlement than from the famine. It said that as many as 100,000 people had already died from forced resettlement. Mr. Strong said the report accurately detailed several isolated incidents of forced resettlement. “But the number of deaths — there is no question it is a gross misrepresentation,” he said. He offered no estimates of his own.
President P. W. Botha, in a speech in which he promised changes in South Africa’s racial policies, suggested today that the jailed black nationalist Nelson Mandela might be freed if the Soviet Union released two well-known dissidents and if Angola liberated a captured South African soldier. The offer, implying a possible trade for the liberty of Mr. Mandela in return for that of Andrei D. Sakharov and Anatoly B. Shcharansky, seemed designed to shift responsibility for the South African black leader’s continued incarceration to the Soviet Government, which champions his cause. At the same time, however, the offer seemed to imply a leap in the authorities’ own logic, conferring on Mr. Mandela, who is depicted here as a terrorist, the same political-prisoner status that is attributed in the West to Mr. Sakharov and Mr. Shcharansky. Mr. Botha made his remarks at the annual opening of Parliament in Cape Town. He elaborated on themes of racial liberalization that he has struck in the past, but made no dramatic new proposals to ease the conflict that has taken almost 1,100 lives in 17 months.
The State Department said the speech today by President Botha was “important” and welcomed his statement that South Africa had “outgrown the outdated concept of apartheid.” In one of its warmest comments on South Africa in months, the State Department also took favorable note of Mr. Botha’s suggestion that South Africa might release Nelson Mandela. In his speech, Mr. Botha raised the possibility of releasing Mr. Mandela in the context of the Soviet Union’s releasing the dissident Anatoly B. Shcharansky from prison and ending the internal exile of Andrei D. Sakharov. Secretary of State George P. Shultz has insisted that the South African Government recognize that apartheid, the policy of racial separation, must end, and he has called for the release of Mr. Mandela as a step toward black-white reconciliation in South Africa.
President Reagan plans to call for a comprehensive revision of the nation’s social welfare system, White House officials said today. In his State of the Union Message on Tuesday, the officials said, Mr. Reagan intends to announce a year-long study of Federal, state and local welfare programs aimed at reducing the dependence of poor people on government assistance. The study, to be conducted by Mr. Reagan’s domestic policy advisers, will also assess the effects that welfare programs have on the family as an institution, the officials said. The White House officials said Mr. Reagan would ask his domestic advisers to draft a detailed proposal to overhaul the welfare system, much as he directed the Treasury Department to come up with a proposal on tax revision in his State of the Union Message in January 1984. The new initiative reflects what appears to be an emerging bipartisan consensus that the United States must re-examine government policy toward welfare and the family.
The battle for the Republican Presidential nomination, already off to an unusually early and spirited start, erupted in an angry exchange today between two top political strategists at a major gathering of conservative activists. While most of the Republican Presidential hopefuls took turns addressing the 13th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, some of their advisers were waging a guerrilla campaign behind the scenes. The dispute was set off when aides to Representative Jack F. Kemp of upstate New York suggested to reporters that a Presidential preference poll of conservative activists had been stacked in favor of Vice President Bush. The Kemp forces contended that members of some conservative groups favorable to Mr. Kemp had not been including in the polling, Mr. Bush’s supporters stayed out of the fray, but David Keene, the conference chairman, angrily accused Roger Stone, a top Kemp strategist, of trying to discredit the poll and of using college Republicans to skew the results of a separate straw poll of conference participants in Mr. Kemp’s favor.
As Congress and a host of Federal agencies sift the implications of the new budget-balancing act, the picture from the Western U.S. is laced with irony: Fiscal conservatives are backing a court challenge to the budget cuts and some conservationists have applauded a reduced federal role in certain areas. The act, whose Republican Senate sponsors were Phil Gramm of Texas and Warren B. Rudman of New Hampshire, calls for a gradual elimination of the federal budget deficit in the next three years and mandates automatic cuts in most federal programs if specific deficit limits are not met. The automatic cuts have touched off protests from conservatives who have been urging more Federal spending in the region to help develop natural resources and compensate for the government’s immense land holdings. On the other hand, environmentalists, who have generally opposed the Reagan Administration’s policies of subsidizing development, welcome the prospect of reduced federal outlays for natural resource development, roads built by the Forest Service to help loggers and dams built by the Bureau of Reclamation for irrigators.
G.D. Searle & Company announced yesterday that, because of what it termed unwarranted lawsuits, it was discontinuing the sale of its two intrauterine contraceptive devices in the United States. About a million American women use Searle’s Copper-7, the most frequently prescribed IUD, or its Tatum-T. Searle was the last major manufacturer of intrauterine devices in the United States to hold out against increasing costs of product-liability litigation and insurance. With the company’s withdrawal, this type of birth control device will no longer be available in this country.
Surgeons implanted a human heart in Mary Lund, replacing an artificial heart she received December 18 after a viral infection destroyed her own heart’s pumping ability. Mrs. Lund, who is 40 years old, was the first woman to receive an artificial heart. The donor heart was implanted at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. “She went through the surgery very well,” Dr. Robert A. Van Tassel, spokesman for the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, said at a news conference tonight. “We were fortunate in finding a donor at the opportune time. We’re very optimistic after what we saw today.”
A strong earthquake near Cleveland rumbled through nine states and part of Canada yesterday, sounding an alarm at an unfinished nuclear plant in Ohio and cracking a building in Pennsylvania but apparently causing no injuries. The United States Geological Survey in Washington estimated that the earthquake, which occurred at 11:47 AM, had a magnitude of 5 on the Richter scale of ground movement and was centered 30 miles northeast of Cleveland. Emergency alarms were activated and employees were sent home at the Perry nuclear plant, 35 miles east of Cleveland. Lee Bailey, a spokesman for the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, operator of the plant, said there was no structural damage. Fuel rods on the site that were to be loaded in reactors were not damaged, he said.
The Air Force has acknowledged for the first time that an airman arrested last week is accused of trying to provide the Soviet Union with classified information on a highly secret spy plane. Details of the Air Force’s charges were made public Thursday night at Beale Air Force Base, near Sacramento, where the airman, Bruce D. Ott, was stationed. Beale is the home base of the SR-71 spy plane, successor to the U-2.
An officer of the Navy frigate USS Miller testified today that a lieutenant murdered at sea was crucial to the ship’s operations, a factor vital to the Navy’s attempt to impose a death sentence on his killer. Petty Officer 3d Class Mitchell T. Garraway Jr. was convicted Thursday of premeditated murder in the fatal stabbing of the lieutenant, James K. Sterner. Mr. Garraway had pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder, but the Navy’s prosecutor, Lieutenant Daniel E. O’Toole, rejected the plea and tried him before an eight-member court-martial. The panel that convicted Mr. Garraway must now decide whether to sentence the 21-year-old sailor to life imprisonment or death. The Navy has not executed a sailor since 1849. After a morning of hearing testimony, the panel granted a defense request in the afternoon to suspend the court-martial until Wednesday. Mr. Garraway’s lawyer, Trevor L. Brooks, said he needed the time to bring six to eight defense witnesses from the Washington area.
State Senator Julian Bond of Georgia announced yesterday that he would run for Congress from a mainly black district he helped create, while Kathleen Townsend, daughter of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, opened a Congressional bid in Maryland. Mr. Bond said in Atlanta he would seek the Democratic nomination for the seat now held by Wyche Fowler Jr. Mr. Fowler, also a Democrat, has said he would run for the Democratic nomination to challenge Senator Mack Mattingly, a Republican. Mr. Bond, a black who was elected to the General Assembly in 1965, wrote the 1982 reapportionment plan that created the predominantly black district. Mrs. Townsend made her long-expected entry into the race for the Democratic nomination to oppose a first-term Republican, Representative Helen Delich Bentley.
Washington state lawmakers today ratified a $482 million plan that would give pay raises to 35,000 workers and settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the state’s female employees. The legislation was approved by the Washington House by a vote of 55 to 43 and by the Senate by a vote of 30 to 18. If the plan is upheld by Federal District Judge Jack Tanner, the workers, most of them women, would receive the raises April 20, said Deputy Attorney General Christine Gregoire. Judge Tanner ruled in 1983 that Washington deliberately practiced sex-based wage discrimination and ordered a plan, including back pay, that would have cost up to $1.7 billion, according to estimates. The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the decision in September, but the Legislature and Gov. Booth Gardner pledged to implement a pay equity plan voluntarily. The plan agreed to by state and union negotiators would be implemented over six years. The employees agreed not to go back to court and the state asked Judge Tanner to formally dismiss the case if he found the accord fair.
Nurses in Pennsylvania returned to work today after reaching a tentative agreement to end a nine-day strike against 140 state-run hospitals, health clinics and prisons. Negotiators for the Pennsylvania Nurses Association is to recommend that its 3,600 members, including pharmacists and other health care workers, accept the agreement, said Fred Stull, a spokesman for the association. The strike ended at 7 AM with the change of shifts, the union said. The three-year contract, similar to one negotiated with other state employees last summer, offered hourly increases of 3 percent, or 32 cents, the first year; 3 percent, or 33 cents, the second; and 3 percent, or 34 cents, the third year; and is retroactive to July 1.
A jury has decided the builder of a DC-10 that skidded off a runway, killing four passengers, should pay $32 million to Continental Airlines for misleading the airline on the plane’s safety. The jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court found Thursday that the McDonnell Douglas Corporation had committed fraud, negligence and breach of contract for making false assertions about the plane’s ability to withstand a crash. The accident occurred in 1978 at Los Angeles International Airport. Four of the 197 passengers were killed and 70 others were injured when two of the jet’s tires blew, the jet tipped onto one wing and its fuel tanks broke open. A subsequent fire caused most of the injuries. A spokesman for McDonnell Douglas said the verdict would be appealed.
“It was our dream,” said Carleen Giles. Just five months ago the 19-year-old and her twin sister, Christine, were on the way to living that dream as they went through the four-week training school to become Eastern Airlines flight attendants. But Carleen Giles worked on Eastern’s jets for only a month and a half before being put on an unpaid furlough. And it was only a few weeks after returning that she went to work to find a list on the bulletin board: As of February 4, she, her sister and 1,000 other flight attendants for the huge but debt-ridden airline were going to be out of work. “Thank God we have parents in New Jersey and didn’t have to find a place to live,” said Miss Giles. Others in the Newark chapter of the Transport Workers Union are less fortunate. Along with shattered dreams, they face having cars repossessed and finding new places to live because they cannot afford $300 to $400 a month for their shares of apartments.
A jury today found the Kentucky State Treasurer and six co-defendants not guilty of all theft charges relating to her 1983 campaign. The Treasurer, Frances Jones Mills, leaped to her feet and raised her hands in victory as Judge William Graham of Franklin Circuit Court announced the verdict after a nine-week trial. “I really feel wonderful right now,” Mrs. Mills said. “My faith in God and the judicial system have been strengthened. It is very possible that I will run for Lieutenant Governor.” The charges stemmed from an investigation into charges of abuse of state personnel in her campaign for Treasurer. Mrs. Mills, a Democrat, was Secretary of State at the time. The indictments charged that she ordered state employees to perform campaign or personal tasks for her while billing the state for their time. The six co-defendants, all of whom worked for Mrs. Mills when she was Secretary of State, were charged with performing that work on state time or ordering others to do so.
Scott Wedman, starting for the injured Kevin McHale, scored 24 points as the Boston Celtics defeated the Washington Bullets, 97-88, tonight and extended their winning streak to 10 in a row, the longest in the National Basketball Association this season.
Finishing up a week of impressive gains, the Dow Jones industrial average rose sharply yesterday to a record level in continued brisk trading. Yesterday’s volume of 143.5 million shares made January the busiest month in the history of the New York Stock Exchange, with more than 2.87 billion shares changing hands. December had held the record, with 2.8 billion shares.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1570.99 (+18.81)
Born:
Pauline Parmentier, French tennis player, in Cucq, Pas-de-Calais department, France
History Diaries 