ustxtxb_obs_1986_02_21_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

–,…_ —-_,.. _ 5 II I p oi _…….0.I, I.; lfirl III ! q I’ _.:-.. . _____ HE P Rittsl P, 1.;—-:=-‘—> …-.. In f OW ‘ 1111111/.. EIS9 1 ‘-‘ 4 r7 -, ,, 1..___ u l …— fi 70111.1111,:::: , , – 1 1 II Iri IIIII ‘ I —-. ,7,…. ——, —-,-____- -…….ll li i I li ,.,_———-.——_ IL _-……..,…,–___ .. N— .7- . .. T &DB SERvER .tr,’. The Texas Observer Publishing Co.. 1986 VOL 78, No. 4 7’7:” February 21,1986 Copyright 1986 by Texas Observer Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission. PUBLISHER Ronnie Dugger EDITOR Geoffrey Rips ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Denison CALENDAR EDITOR Chula Sims LAYOUT AND DESIGN: Val Fowler EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Kathleen Fitzgerald WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Vera Titunik EDITORIAL INTERNS: Ron Cesar, Beau Barton, Ellen Williams. EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Frances Barton. Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerr ville; Chandler Davidson. Houston; Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.: Sissy Farenthold. Houston; Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cam bridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Dallas; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris. Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott. Austin; James Fred Schmidt. Tehachapi, Cal., Robert Sherrill, Tallahassee. Fla. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Warren. Burnett. Jo Clifton, Craig Clifford. Louis Dubose, John Henry Faulk, Ed Garcia, Bill Helmer, James Harrington, Jack Hop per, Amy Johnson, Michael King. Dana Loy, Rick Piltz, Susan Raleigh. John Schwartz, Michael Ventura, Lawrence Walsh. CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Alan Pogue, Russell Lee, Scott Van Osdol, Alicia Daniel. CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: Mark Antonucci, Eric Avery. Tom Ballenger. Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig. Pat Johnson. Kevin Kreneck, Carlos Lowry, Miles Mathis, Joe McDermott. Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau. A of free voices journal We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth. to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the power fill or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Managing Publisher Cliff Olofson Subscription Manager Stefan Wanstrom Publishing ‘Consultant Frances Barton Development Consultant Hanno T. Beck Editorial and Business Office The Texas Observer paid at Austin. Texas. Subscription rates. including 5 118% sales tax: one year S23. two years S42. three years S59. One year rate for full-time students, SI5. Back issues S2 prepaid. Airmail. foreign. group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 43106. Copyright 1986 by Texas Observer Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission. POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to: 600 West 28th Street, #105. Austin Texas 78705. EDITORIAL Lost in Space NO SOONER had the Challenger spacecraft tragically exploded than every neuron of the news media sprang into action the chief purpose to defend the space industry, lest we for one moment question the value of peopled spacecraft. Space advocates and apologists roamed the airways, eager for a chance to open up new offensives against potential backsliders in the race for space. An Austin newsman lectured University of Texas Chancellor Hans Mark on the fact that we must not waver or give up our space quest. Mark, apparently not bothered by the fact he was not asked a question, carried the ball a little bit further without revealing that he is currently locked in his own race for space research funds for the UT system. Former Astronaut David Scott told an interviewer on NBC’s Today that the quest must continue because “we’re opening the frontiers of space beginning to develop commerce.” Meanwhile, Dan Rather was telling his CBS audience that, unlike the Soviet program, the U.S. space program is not a predominantly military one. The fact is that, of the $17 billion budgeted for the space program in 1984, $6.5 billion was budgeted for NASA while $10.5 billion was budgeted through the Defense Department for military space programs. With the entry of Star Wars into the budget picture, that disproportion can only grow. It is because of the commercial and military interests in space that we are so overly committed to putting people up there. Meanwhile, with the development of the space shuttle, the commercial uses of space have replaced theoretical and applied research as a civilian priority for the program. Susan Pierce, public affairs director of Ford Aerospace, told the Dallas Times-Herald that space “is becoming a business. Their early role was research and development in the field of space. . . . Private companies begin to enter the business and take over the development work. That’s the concept, and it has worked extremely well .” And we’re not just talking about Tang and teflon and medical breakthroughs. The major commercial uses of space involve communications systems to cover the globe, put into place by those who can afford them. \(This, by the way, is one of the major worries of those who produced the much-maligned Now at the back of the bus are those scientific space researchers responsible for many of the discoveries that have produced practical benefits for mankind. Most of the problems addressed by the research scientists can be performed on unmanned space flights. And that’s not a popular prospect around NASA, the White House, or the Pentagon these days. It is because of the commercial and military interests in space that we are so overly committed to putting people in outer space.