Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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’Rocket heads for space station BY MARCIA DUNN Associated Press BAIKONUR, Kazakstan — Ameri can astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russ ian cosmonauts rocketed into orbit Tues day on a quest to become the first residents of the international space sta tion and begin fulfilling the once-fan tastic dream of permanent occupancy in space. “Let’s go do it! ” Shepherd, the space station’s inaugural commander, shouted before climbing into the Soyuz rocket |£pd blasting off from the same pad where ihe Space Age began 43 years ago, with Sputnik. “It’s history again repeating itself, in a different way,” said Joe Rothenbeig, head of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s human space flight program. “Space shouldn’t be the same again.” J’lie $60 billion-plus station, a joint project among the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and 10 member countries of the European Space Agency, has been called the hugest technological enter prise ever undertaken on a global scale. “It will be a laboratory like every professor wishes he had here on Earth, and open 24 hours a day,” said Joerg Feustel-Buechl, director of manned space flight for the Europeim Space Agency. He monitored the launch with Russian and other space officials at Russian Mis sion Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow. The 17-story green rocket, trans formed into a frosty white by the super cold fuel, vanished into dense fog three seconds after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Its brightly burning en gines were visible several seconds later as the rocket gained speed and altitude. By then, the roar was deafening to the more than 500 gathered at the Central Asian cosmodrome. Nine minutes later, Shepherd and his crew mates, Yuri Gidzenko and Seigei Krikalev, were in orbit and giving chase to the international space station. The complex was soaring 240 miles above the Sahara when they took off, more than two years late as a result of Russia’s eco nomic troubles, which stalled space sta tion assembly. The three men will reach their new home on Thursday and settle in for a four-month stay. The station’s official language is English, though the crew says they will communicate in “Runglish,” a mix of Russian and English, and Russ ian is expected to be used when com municating with ground controllers out side Moscow. There was no countdown at the cos modrome, only occasional and curt re ports blaring from loudspeakers. Sev eral seconds before liftoff, the command, Zazhigamye, or Ignition, was giv en, and the 20 engines burst into flames. Clouds of dark smoke rolled across the barren desert. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin waited until Shepherd and his crew were safely in orbit before hugging top Russ ian officials and giving a high-five to Rothenberg, his deputy. The deputy director general of the Russian Space Agency, Valery Alaver dov, pressed a goblet into Goldin’s hands and poured scotch from a bottle. “Suc cess,” Alaverdov toasted. “Here’s to a great space program,” Goldin replied. “There are so many people who felt maybe we couldn’t do it,” Goldin told reporters moments later, referring to the years of agonizing delay. “But it’s hap pening. It’s here. We’re going to be in space forever with people who are cir cling this globe, and then we’re going on to Mars, back to the moon and with bases on asteroids.” Shepherd’s wife, Beth Stringham Shepherd, celebrated the successful launch her own way. She passed out cig ars and puffed long and hard on one. Shepherd, who had been training and waiting nearly five years for this mission, blew kisses to his wife before he left and kept flashing a thumbs-up to his col leagues. “Give us a fast ship,” Shepherd, a 51 -year-old Navy captain, urged the * There are so many people who felt maybe we couldn’t do it, but it's happening. It’s here. We’re going to be in space forever with people who are circling this globe, and then we’re going on to Mars, back to the moon and with bases on asteroids.' Daniel Goldin NASA Administrator NASA and Russian space officials who saw him off. “May you have a fair wind and a fol lowing sea,” replied his boss, George Abbey, director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. • Shepherd and his crew, NASA’s so called Expedition One, are in for a busy and difficult next few weeks. As soon as they arrive at the space station, they will activate all the life-support sys tems and start tackling all the mainte nance and repair chores that have been piling up since the new living quarters joined the rest of the complex in July. Visiting space shuttle astronauts took care of as many chores as they could in September and again in October, but the bulk of the work had to wait for the experts: Sheplierd, an accomplished home mechanic, and his crew. Space shuttle crews will visit two more times, delivering giant electricity producing solar panels and the Ameri can lab Destiny, before Discovery arrives in February to bring Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikaiev back to Earth. They will be replaced by a fresh crew. And so it will go, for the next 15 years and possi bly even longer. NASA hopes to finish building the space station in 2006 and keep using it for scientific research for at least a decade beyond that. “There’s so much more to do,” said Michael Foale, a NASA astronaut who’s in chaige of the space station expedition crews. “But it’s a transition for all of us psychologically to think that we’re doing something real rather than some thing we’ve always imagined.” Foale added hopefully: “I have of ten thought this may be the last time that there were no humans in space, and 1 re ally believe that could be today.” lith-hour Bush ad accuses A1 Gore of bending truth ■ Bush, Gore take to airways as election nears by Walter R. Mears Associated Press ^ 3URBANK, Cauf. —In a campaign closing attack on A1 Gore’s character, Gov. George W. Bush on Tuesday aired a new ad accusing the Democratic vice president of “bending the truth” about Social Security and prescription drugs. A week before Election Day, Bush and Gore crisscrossed the West Coast in search of votes tis their aides make last minute strategic decisions. Gore was con sidering a liard-lritting ad of Iris own ques tioning Bush’s experience and whether he’s ready to be president. Gore promoted liis tax plan by meet ing with a middle-class family in Port land, Ore.; Bush was headed there later Tuesday. A Gore spokesman said the new Bush ad proves the Texas governor “a hyp 1 "Vritc” because he has said his campaign would be positive. Tlie Bush ad opens with an announcer saying, “Remember when A1 Gore said his mother-in-law’s prescriptions cost more than his dog’s? His own aides said the story was made up. Now A1 Gore is bending the truth again.” It accuses Gore of misrepresenting Bush’s plans for So cial Security, and ends with a video clip of the vice president debating Bill Bradley during the New Hampshire primary cam paign. “There has never been a time when I said something untrue,” Gore says, as the screen fades and leaves view ers with a one-word message: “Really?” Gore spokesman Mark Fabiani said, “Geoige Bush lied to the American peo ple when he said he would run a positive campaign.” “How can Bush bring civility to Washington when he can’t even bring ci vility to his own faltering campaign?” Fabiani said in a statement. Gore’s credibility is a centerpiece of Bush’s campaign. The vice president has made inroads in key states such as Flori da with his criticism of Bush’s plan to privatize portions of Social Security. A senior Bush adviser said the cam paign will close with the new ad and a spot called “Trust,” a high-minded ad about Bush’s philosophy of government that has been airing for some time. ^ Bush, meanwhile, took a final turn at la.te night TV c;unp;iign comedy with Halloween gibes at Gore, teen defended his readiness for the White House, say ing the Democrats' challenge to his ex perience is “what they said about Ronald Reagan when that good man was running for president.” The vice president was appearing on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on Tuesday after leaving the Midwest bat tleground to campaign in Portland and California. In a Portland restaurant, Gore sat down with Eric and Meg Merrill, who share an income of $47,000, to promote his tax plan. “We added up what you would get. You’d get a lot more under my plan be cause you are the middle class,” Gore said. He said his proposals for tax breaks for child care and elder care would benefit the family. The experience question has become a Democratic theme against Bush. “He’s not ready to be president,” vice presidential nominee Joe Lieber man repeated at a Wisconsin rally with Gore on Monday. Gore said in Muskegon, Mich., that in the Nov. 7 election “prosperity itself will be on the ballot” because Bush’s tax cut and other plans would wreck it. “My opponent gives in to the pow erful interests, and I believe his plans would leave millions of families worse off than they are today,” the vice presi dent said. Gore declared himself “opposed to big government,” and promised again that he would not add even one position to the federal bureaucracy. In the West, Bush told a rally in New Mexico and two in California Monday night that Gore stands for big govern ment and for decisions made in Wash ington instead of by the people. He said Gore is the one who would threaten economic growth by seeking 280 new or expanded federal programs and the costs that would go with them. Bush said sardonically that Gore “might be exaggerating’' in promising no new federal jobs, because the Senate Bud get Committee, run by Republicans, es timates his programs would take 20,000 to 30,000 new bureaucrats. Bush said Gore is the one “sur rounded and supported by interest groups that exist to oppose reform.” As for experience, the Texas gover nor told Leno in his Monday night ap pearance that “some folks believe you have to spend all your life in Washington in order to be qualified to be the presi dent,” and he does not. “In all seriousness... that’s what they said about Ronald Reagan when that good Campaign seepages New Nader campaign spot to play in up to 30 markets by Eun-Kyung Kim Associated Press WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader launched his second TV commercial for Ills Green Party presidential cam paign Tuesday, as he came under mounting pressure from Democratic leaders to drop out of the race and back A1 Gore. The new 30-second spot, a paro dy like his first, will “run in up to 30 markets across the country,” said its creator Bill Hillsman. He would n’t say which ones. The ad is based on a spot by the employment website Monster.com featuring a series of children talking about "when I grow up. ” It asks vot ers to support Nader if they “want something better for yourself and the next generation.” Nader averages about 5 percent in national polls, but comes in con alterably higher in at least a ltalf-dozen traditionally Democratic states that are tossups between Gore and Re publican George W. Bush. Nader’s potential for taking votes away from Gore has prompted a vig orous campaign by Democrats who say voting for him will only help Bush win the election. Nader’s campaign manager, There sa Amato, dismissed the chance that Nader would endorse Gore in swing states: “Absolutely not. We’re go ing for every single vote across the country.” Like his first television spot, a par ody of a MasterCard commercial that got Nader slapped with a lawsuit, the new ad plays off a popular commer cial. It features children speaking di rectly into the camera, one at a time: “When I grow up I want the gov eminent to have the same problems it has today, “I want to vote for the lesser of two evils. “I want to be lied to. “I want to be apathetic. “I want tax breaks for the very rich. ... “When I grow up I want politi cians to ignore me.” It ends with an announcer asking, “Is this wliat you want from your gov ernment? Or do you want something better for yourself and the next gen eration?” Hillsman, the Minneapolis-based adman who made both TV commer cials and Nader’s radio spots, said he didn’t want to tip off the competition to where the new ads were running. “They’re trying to attack us in any way possible,” he said. Airplane carrying 179 people hits object on Singapore runway by William Foreman Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan —A Singapore Air lines 747 jetliner taking off for Los An geles hit an object on the runway during a storm Tuesday night, scatter ing flaming wreckage across the tar mac. At least 68 of the 179 people on board were injured, and 75 passengers were unaccounted for, airline officials said. There were wildly conflicting re ports about casualties on board Flight SQ006. Taiwanese Transportation Min ister Yeh Chu-lan said one person had died, 104 people were hurt and 74 were missing. Two local TV stations report ed as many as 47 dead. But a Singapore Airlines spokesman said he could not confirm if there were any fatalities. The plane’s pilot reported hitting an object on the runway while trying to take off at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, airline spokesman James Boyd said. Despite the rain, video footage showed parts of the Boeing 747-400 series plane spewing gouts of flame and thick black smoke. Afterward, parts of the plane’s blue fuselage appeared bad ly charred, with a gaping hole in the roof of the forward section. The aborted takeoff occurred at 11:18p.m. Minutes later, ambu lances and rescue vehicles crowded the wet tarmac, lights flashing. There were initial reports the plane had struck a China Airlines plane on the runway, but a China Airlines official later said those report were not accurate. “It felt like we bumped into some thing huge,” said Doug Villerman, a 33-year-old Louisiana passenger who was standing outside a local hospital afterward, wrapped in a tunic and smok ing a cigarette. “It looked like the front end just fell off. Front there, it just start ed to fall apart. I ran to the escape hatch with the stewardess, but we couldn’t get it open. Two feet away from me, I saw flames. “Everyone was just panicking,” he said. “I tried to open the escape hatch on the top just a slit and saw a lot of smoke. The fumes were just incredi ble. But eventually we got it open.... We were just all so scared it was going to blow up.” Boyd said there were 159 passen gers and 20 crew aboard the plane. Of the passengers, 68 were hurt, 16 were not hurt and 75 were unaccounted for, he said. He said one crew member was hurt and three were not. He did not mention the fate of the other 16 crew members. Local TV reports showed a frantic scene at Chang Gung Memorial Hos piuil near the airport, where emergency room workers gently lifted injured peo ple from ambulances. Some appeared to be burned. They laid on stretchers with their arms stretched stiffly in front of their torsos. Tonya Joy, 37, of New Zealand, was being pushed toward the operat ing room. “I felt two hits and we twisted around twice,’’she said. “I jumped out of the top and landed on the ground, so the doctors think there is something wrong with my spine. The weather was just awful. Flames came so fast on both sides of the plane.” Dr. T.L. Huang said 34 injured peo ple had been admitted, including 11 foreigners. He said he couldn’t yet pro vide their nationalities. In Singapore, officials set up a cri sis management center at Changi air port. A handful of relatives, some in tears, were being led to the cordoned off area by crisis workers. Singapore Airlines, the South Asian city-state’s flagship carrier, is one of the world’s most profitable airlines. It has been flying for 28 years and had never crashed. The storm pounding Taiwan, Ty phoon Xangsane, had whirled closer to the island’s southern coast Tuesday, and heavy rains have already begun soaking the capital, Taipei. The typhoon was packing 90 mph winds and was ex pected to make landfall by Wednesday if it maintained its current course, the Central Weather Bureau said. News Briefs — ■ Researchers describe promising arthritis treatment PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An exper imental new rheumatoid arthritis treat ment that targets renegade white blood cells.shows promise in early testing, re searchers reported. Preliminary tests using a biotech nology drug taigeted at the immune sys tem showed signs of major benefits for the first five subjects 18 months after their treatment, according to Dr. Jonathan Edwards of University College in Lon don. A second group of five people ap peared to have been helped six months after treatment, he said. Edwards will give a presentation on the treatment at a meeting of the Amer ican College of Rheumatology in Philadel phia Wednesday. ■ Texas Baptists vote to withdraw funding to parent denomination CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Texas’ 2.7 million Baptists have dealt a severe blow to the Southern Baptist Con vention, withdrawing $5 million in fund ing on the grounds that the denomina tion is becoming too conservative. The vote Monday is considered a wa tershed by both sides in the doctrinal con flict that has long divided the nation’s laigest Protestant denomination, which has 15.8 million members. ■ Central Japan hit by strong earthquake; six people injured TOKYO (AP) — A strong earthquake struck central Japan Tuesday, temporar ily closing a local expressway and in juring six people but causing little dam age. The injured, four in Mie state and one each in Aichi and Gifu states, were taken to hospitals, but their injuries were not serious, police said. The quake, which hit at 1:43 a.m., had a magnitude of 5.5 and was centered about 25 miles underground in southern Mie prefecture, the Meteorological Agency said. ■ Parcells, Vermeil make nominees list for NFL Hall of Fame CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Super Bowl winning coaches Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells and Dick Vermeil were among 78 former NFL players, coaches and con tributors nominated Monday for induc tion into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Others nominated for the first time were wide receivers Gary Clark and Art Monk, offensive lineman Chris Hin ton, Bart Oates and Jackie Slater and line backers Carl Banks and Wilber Marshall. A list of 15 finalists will be announced in mid-January, with the 2000 inductees announced on Jan. 27, the day before the Super Bowl. ■ Gospel Music Hall of Fame inducts once-spumed group FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP)— The Oak Ridge Boys, once frowned on for their long hair and country music leanings, have been inducted into the Gospel Mu sic Hall of Fame. The quartet joined seven other acts, including hard rock band Petra, another group once spumed by the Christian mu sic industry, as the Hall Of Fame’s newest inductees Monday night. Also inducted during the ceremony were Shirley Caesar, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Roger Breland and Truth, The Kingsmen, The Fisk University Jubilee Singers and late music executive Bob Mac Kenzie.