Last Apollo Flight Heads for Moon and Seven Seconds of the Countdown
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On The Inside Trend to off-campus living ...7 Clarke gets ax from H-man ...page 3 THE OBSERVER serving the notre dame - st. mary's community VOL. V II No. 59 Thursday, December 7, 1972 Third stage prob Last Apollo flight heads for moon and seven seconds of the countdown. The would be the nation’s sixth landing of men by John Noble Wilford term inal countdown sequencer, as the on the Moon and the 11th manned mission (C) 1972 New York Times News Service computer is called, is programmed to stop of the Apollo project. Cernan and Schmitt the launch if it senses any malfunction. A plan to land their lunar module, named r ape Kennedy, Dec. 7- Apollo 17 few minutes after the scheduled lift-off, Challenger, in a narrow valley just beyond ‘'Listed.off toward the moon this morning, which was to have been at 9:53 p.m. a the southeastern rim of the Sea of its fiery exhaust turning night into day, in spokesman for the national aeronautics Serenity. The site is called Taurus-Littrov, a delayed though spectacular beginning of and space administration announced that after the Taurus mountains and the Lit- the nation's last planned lunar mission. the oxygen tank had failed to be trow crater in the area of Apollo 17’s The lift-off came at 12:33 a.m. after a pressurized at the proper time. target. The landing is scheduled for 2:54 delay of more than two hous because of Launch controllers quickly pressurized p.m. next monday, Dec. 11. trouble in the third stage of the Saturn 5 the tank through manual switching. But, rocket. A computer command had halted by the. by then, the computer’s timing was Evans to experiment the countdown just 30 seconds before the trhouwn off and it ordered the shutdown. originally scheduled lift-off time. While they are exploring the sur.ace As the mammoth white moonship rose Reaches 100-mile orbit during the 75-hour visit, Evans is to pilot ponderously into the dark, starry night the command ship, America, in Lunar red-orange flames rushed out of its tail and After the launch, the astronauts are orbit. He is expected to be busy operating its explosive might sent tremors through expected to ride their spaceship into orbit a number of remote-sensing experiments the sandy soil for miles around. It was the more than 100 miles above the earth. After aimed at learning the nature of the Moon’s first nightime launching of American two complete turns around the world, they subsurface structure, prospecting for Astronauts, and some half a million are to rocket out of near-earth orbit and underground water, if any, and deter spectators stood in awe of the 6.5 million begin the voyage out to the moon. mining the surface chemistry over a broad pound spaceship arcing out over the On Sunday, at 12:43 p.m., Apollo 17 is area. Atlantic Ocean. scheduled to reach the moon, rocket into The planned 12 day and 16 hour mission, The Crew of Apollo 17 - Capt. Eugene A. an orbit and prepare for the last landing on costing $450 million, is. scheduled to e Cernan and Commander Ronald E. Evans that cratered world for years to come. nd with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean of the Navy and Dr. Harrison S. Schmitt, a To get to Apollo 17’s planned landing site at 2:24 p.m. Dec. 19. Although the splash geologist - were strapped into the cone shortly after sunrise near the moon’s Sea down will mark the end of an area of space shaped capsule atop the Saturn 5. of Serenity made it necessary to launch the exploration, Cernan likes to describe the mission at night. Any launching time is Mission as the “ conclusion of the begin calculated by deciding when is the most ning.” Near moon by Sunday desirable time for a lunar landing and then No American astronaut will be going to About 12 minutes after lift- off, the working backward through the many steps the moon for the rest of this decade, astronauts rose the spacecraft into an required to get there . Mission planners perhaps not for years after that. But next orbit more than 100 miles above the earth, chose an early-m orning landing on the year three crew of astronauts plan to live their troubles on the launching pad far moon because, w ith the sun low on the and work as long as 56 days at a tim e in the behind them. horizon and the lighting contrasts better, it Earth-orbiting laboratory called Skylab. The delay in the mission came on the is easier for the astronauts to steer the Then, in 1975, American astronauts are elctronic orders of a computer system that lunar module to the touchdown. It is also scheduled to fly a modified Apollo monitors and controls all spaceship better for photography on the moon. spacecraft to a rendezvous and link-up operations during the final three minutes Apollo 17, if all continues to go well. (continued on page 4) Criticizes Nixon Schmitz sees U,S. Schmitz speaking in the Library by Don White Auditorium claimed that Nixon further Staff Reporter perpetrated the war with his recent trade agreements with Russia. Part of the Republican Congressman John G. Sch agreements, he said, concerned supplying mitz described what he calls the “ Rosad to the Russians with highly specialized 1984” before a crowd of over 200 last night. computer technology. “ The surface-to-air He cited George Orwell’s1984, where missies that are killing our pilots in “ Iruth is falsehood, love is hate, peace is Vietnam require highly specialized war, an Alice in Wonderland’ world...this computer technology,” said Schmitz. is what we’re moving toward.” He also noted that the U.S. has allowed The California congressman struck out an American company that manufactures at a number of things he considered to be a special grinder that produces ball milestones of totalitarianism that could be bearings used in missle guidance systems looked for. These included the Vietnam to sell 150 of the machines to the Soviet war. President Nixon’s trips to Russia and T,nion. China, abortion, revenue-sharing, in flation, gun registration, and the issue of “ ecology vs. energy.” against limited w ar Schmitz stated that “tyrants who always looked for mischievious foreign wars to keep people’s minds off the home “ If you had an enemy that was bent upon front” were a move toward your destruction, would you help him aim totalitarianism. “ You probably thought I his gun? I don’t think you would. But this would defend the war, but I won’t because is exactly what we are doing,” claimed it’s not a war against communism. If we Schmitz. wanted to fight a war against communism, “We switched sides before the war we could go ninty miles off the Florida finished. Never in our history have we coast. Instead, we continue to aid the done this before.” enemy by providing him with the sinews of It is not immoral to aid an ally or bomb w ar.” ammunition dumps, said Schmitz. “ What is im m oral is to send troops in to fight an undeclared, limited war that can not be USSR got US help decided. No one can take our war efforts seriously as long as we continue to aid the enemy with the sinews of war.” Schmitz, 1972 American Independant Abortion is another milestone of Party candidate for President, explained Schmitz: enumerates “ milestones of totaliarinism. totalitarianism according to the this by citing a survey that estimated 90 to Wisconsin native. 95 per cent of Soviet m ilitary technology came from the U.S. or NATO allies. “ They the Ho Chi Minh T ra il in Vietnam were (continued on page 4) (Russia) are only in the ball game because built in America, Soviet factories by by iiiniiiiiiiiiiiiwimiimimiiHmiiiiimmHiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii we keep them there. Our leaders tell us American technicians and with American that we are number two to the Soviets know-how. On 36 square mile factory militarily. It is embarassing to be number being built in the Soviet Union now by the Tomorrow's Observer is the two to a country that can’t even build its Ford Motor Company will produce more own trucks.” trucks than all the other factories in the He said that the same trucks blown up on world when it is completed, he said. last edition before Christmas iiininiiiiiiminnniTiinnniniiiiiiiiiiiinimnnnnimHnniuiisinimuuiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiniiiHii 2 the observer Thursday, December 7, 1972 Saigon - In retaliation for a morning Vietcong rocket attack on Tansonnhut Airport less than four miles from downtown Saigon, American planes flew tactical air strikes within 10 miles of the huge on campus today airbase Wednesday evening in an attempt to hit the Communist at tack forces. Military spokesmen said 53 rounds of 122 millimeter rocket fire hit the base during the attack, described as the worst in world four years. 5:30 - Football banquet, w ith Ziggy Czarobski and Duffy Paris- After receiving detailed instructions from President Nixon Daugherty, ACC. tickets, call during a day’s pause in the Paris peace talks, Henry Kissinger 6516. resumed negotiations with LeDuc Tho, Hanoi's chief negotiator. As 7:00 & 10:00 - movie; M idnight usual, there was no official assessment after the latest meeting, Cowboy, Engineering which lasted'five and a half hours. Auditorium. 7:30 - lecture, Ludwig Meidner: briefs Washington - President Nixon continued to unveil his second term The Art of German Ex Cabinet nominees with the announcement that Earl G.