Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 10

10a ST. PETERSBURG TIMES THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1986 Networks lose nearly $9-million on ads during shuttle coverage The three major television networks lost a combined i I i total of $9-million in revenues by not running commercials during their coverage of the Challenger space shuttle disaster Tuesday, industry analysts estimate. Dave Poltrack, CBS' vice president for research, said Wednesday that ABC, CBS and NBC probably lost about during the afternoon coverage and an additional for their hourlong news broadcasts in prime time. For ABC, CBS and NBC, the news coverage interrupted entertainment programming about 11:45 a.m. EST and then pre-empted their assortment of soap operas and game shows until the evening news shows.

Cable News Network, the only network that was covering the space shot live when Challenger burst into flames, went with shuttle news exclusively for 7 V4 consecutive hours Tuesday, during which there were no commercial interruptions, said Judi Borza, a CNN spokeswoman. Borza said figures on revenue loss were not available. Viewers complain about soaps 4r 1 5 i f. 4 4 l.iK!':;4?5:Mil I Networks received hundreds of complaints Tuesday rw! a from viewers upset that daytime soap operas were pre-empted by coverage of the Challenger explosion. Of If 1 ,73 1 calls received by ABC, 80 percent were about iik Mil the soaps.

ABC Entertainment spokesman Vic Ghidalia said daytime viewers watched the news coverage over and over and wanted a break from shuttle coverage. Flags surrounding Washington Monument fly at half-staff Wednesday in honor of the Challenger crew. The Capitol dome rises in the background. NBC and CBS also reported calls about the loss of the soaps. Where to send condolences Anyone wishing to send condolences to the families of eagan phones families the seven astronauts who perished in the explosion of Challenger should send them to the space agency's of 'Challenger' victims headquarters, NASA officials said Wednesday.

The address: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Administrator's Office. Washington D.C 20546. By NORMAN D. SANDLER United Prat International Fund to benefit victims' children MemnioirDalls Smithsonian unveils plaque for 7 victims at aviation museum By DIRK OLIN St.

Peteriburg Timet Staff Writer WASHINGTON Warren Gump stood Wednesday among hundreds of visitors beneath a model of the space shuttle in the National Air and Space Museum. A bewildered frown hid the braces on his teeth. The 14-year-old was one of several students who happened to be visiting from a nearby high school in Virginia when a ceremony began. Gump listened as a group of congressmen honored the crew members who died Tuesday when Challenger, the mock-up's sister ship, exploded. "I thought they might be here to tell us somethng about the crash," Gump said after the eulogies.

"But I guess this was just to comfort people and help them feel better about the whole thing." Did he feel better? "I don't know," he said with a shrug. Yet Gump and his friends did not express fear of future space launches. So perhaps they had been comforted by the words of former astronaut John Glenn, now a Democratic senator from Ohio. Praising the spirit of Challenger's crew members, Glenn said that Tuesday's tragedy was an almost inevitable outcome of man's fascination with frontiers. It was a day, Glenn said, that the country "knew inside" was coming.

But he insisted that the accident should not retard the space program. "That curiosity and that questing will never die," he said. "If it does, it seems to me that we die as a people." After various speeches, Glenn was joined by the two members of Congress who recently flew in the shuttle, Rep. Bill Nelson, and Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah.

Garn, the first member of Congress to journey into space, said schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe "could have qualified as a full time astronaut on her own" and should "be considered a professional astronaut who died with her crewmen in the service of her country." Glenn, Nelson and Gam unveiled a black-bordered plaque, which bore Tuesday's date and seven short biographies under a group photograph. It read simply: "The crew of the Challenger was lost as a result of an in-flight explosion, shortly after the launch of the Space Shuttle." In an interview after the ceremony, Museum Director Walter J. Boyne explained that the plaque was only a temporary memorial. "This is obviously the preliminary to something more elaborate and permanent," he said. Boyne also held a copy of the single page that one of his staffers found taped to the museum's door early Wednesday morning.

Beneath the seven names of Challenger's crew, someone named Gregory Baker had written his own testimony in round black script: "We are saddened and shocked," it read. "A moment's freedom, a moment's exultation and now tragedy. And yet, though we mourn and we remember those who have died, life goes on, and we must continue onward and outward." It was the same sentiment that Glenn said had followed the last major space tragedy, almost exactly 19 years ago. The three astronauts who died in a fire during the Apollo 1 groundtest on Jan. 27, 1967 Virgil I.

Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee had all been Glenn's personal friends. "They knew the risk, and they were willing to take that risk," he said. "So we have triumph," he added, "and occasionally we have tragedy." It is mostly triumphs that adorn the walls and ceilings at the Smithsonian Institution's aerospace annex.

And the sight of such technological spectacles helps make the museum the most popular in the world. It is visited by more than 10-million people each year. Which might explain why no one seemed to be paying much attention on Wednesday to the small, backlit photograph, deep among the exhibit alcoves on an upper floor, where the late astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee are honored. Graham proposes Florida establish a monument to crew By LAURIE HOLLMAN St. Petersburg Timet Staff Writer A trust fund set up by a Washington lawyer will receive contributions to benefit the 1 1 children of the Challenger crew members killed in the space shuttle explosion.

Delbert Smith, an attorney who has represented NASA and satellite organizations and companies for 1 5 years, said Wednesday that he established the non-profit, charitable trust because mourned at a service at the Johnson Space Center. White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Houston was judged to be "most appropriate" as a site for the service because families of five of the seven dead crew members Gregory Jarvis, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Dick Scobee and Michael Smith live in the area. Mission specialist Judith Resnik was from Akron, Ohio, and the seventh crew member, Christa McAu-liffe, lived in Concord, N.H. In addition to the phone calls and memorial services, Speakes said Reagan would send a written message to students at Concord High School, where McAuliffe taught social studies. Reagan said Wednesday that his feelings are "still as much as they were yesterday.

I think all of us have kind of escaped the numbness of shock that we all felt, but life has to go on and so does the space program." Early in the day, Vice President George Bush briefed Reagan on his hurried visit Tuesday to Cape Canaveral. 'this is the right thing to do." Contributions to the WASHINGTON President Reagan telephoned grieving relatives of the seven victims of the space shuttle disaster Wednesday and made plans to attend a memorial tribute to the Challenger crew at the Houston space center. On what was to have been a busy day devoted to promoting his 1986 legislative agenda, Reagan began a somber series of condolence calls to families of the seven crew members who died Wednesday in an explosion that ripped apart their spacecraft over the Atlantic. On the advice of astronaut John Young, who served as liaison between NASA and the families, Reagan waited until more than 24 hours had passed to call with expressions of sympathy and concern. At the same time, a White House team flew to Houston to arrange for the President and Nancy Reagan to be present Friday when the victims are Space Shuttle Children's Fund should be mailed to: American Security Bank, Box 01 50, Washington, D.C.

20055. Checks should be made out to the Space Shuttle Children's Fund. Space Foundation establishes fund The U.S. Space Foundation established a special fund in memory of the seven Challenger astronauts, with proceeds going toward construction of a new space shuttle, a spokesman said Wednesday. The Foundation pledged $10,000 to the fund, Executive Director Airman's poem used in Reagan's tribute Richard MacLeod said.

MacLeod said the money will be Associated Press put in a trust account in Colorado Springs and then turned over to the government with the provision that it be used in construction of a new shuttle. If the government decides to cancel future shuttles, then the money would be used by NASA. The foundation, established in 1983, is a non-profit charitable, scientific and education organization. MacLeod said it is dedicated to the memory of late astronaut Jack Swigert. The Space Shuttle Fund address: P.O.

Box My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, Where never lark, or even eagle, flew; And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high, untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. Magee was killed in action on Dec. 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. Reagan paraphrased the sonnet Tuesday in his television message in the wake of the explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger and killed its seven crew members.

The President concluded his address by saying: "We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them, this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." Margaret Noonan, a speech writer who worked on the President's address, said Reagan was familiar with the poem because a framed copy of it had appeared on a wall in a school that one of his children attended. Ms. Noonan said she also knew the poem, having read it in the seventh grade. "I sent it in to him and he said, 'Great! Let's use she said. 51 -L, Colorado Springs, CO 80901 Nelson: Name moons for victims WASHINGTON A sonnet by an American airman killed in World War II was thrust into new prominence by President Reagan in his televised tribute to the first Americans killed on a space flight.

The poem, High Flight, was written by John Gillespie Magee then 19, while he was serving as a volunteer with the Royal Canadian Air Force. It is not found in most standard anthologies of 20th century poetry and is seldom taught in literature classes, although it is known to many fliers in and out of the armed services. The poem is as follows: Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along and flung Seven newly discovered moons of the planet Uranus THE GUAKDIAN t-rr SHU I mnri'nis of Soviets, others offer sympathy to Americans dciomii) shuttle fill r-tfft IIMI.S Compiled from Times wires t'f1 r- At- (fcsj.fr, PHP -1 wmLJmm cmri cmo Lira klVIMXIIIl) should be named after the seven crewmembers who perished in the explosion of the shuttle Challenger, Rep. Bill Nelson, said Wednesday.

Nelson, who flew on the last shuttle mission, told the House he will introduce legislation to name the moons recently discovered by the unmanned spacecraft Voyager 2. Space symposium canceled "Florida, Spaceport for Entrepreneurs," a symposium that would have brought many of the nation's leading space experts to Orlando next week, has been cancelled in the wake of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. The symposium was to have discussed commercial opportunities in space, and speakers included many of NASA's top officials. More than 200 people were expected to attend the two-day conference, scheduled to start Monday at Walt Disney World. No re-scheduling date has been made.

Piedmont discontinues ad campaign Piedmont Airlines will temporarily discontinue advertising its "Piedmont Shuttle" service between Florida cities "out of respect for the crew of the Challenger," airline spokeswoman Kim Marshall said Wednesday. Piedmont, which introduced its all-jet shuttle service in October, will "end our current ad campaign a few weeks earlioer than we anticipated" because of the Tuesday morning explosion of Challenger. Marshall said Piedmont does not anticipate changing the name of its intra-Florida service, "but it is possible the emphasis of our ads will change." Pinellas Coast Guard aids in search Three aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Pinellas County joined the search again Wednesday for debris from the explosion of the space shuttle. It was the second straight day that crews from the station at St.

Petersburg-Clearwater Airport took part in the search. The Coast Guard sent a C-1 30 airplane and two helicopters to help search an area off Cape Canaveral. Delay of speech is a first President Reagan's decision to postpone his State of the Union address to Congress for a week marks the first time in history that the speech has been delayed, according to congressional records. Elliott Carroll, executive assistant to the architect of the Capitol, said reviews of House and Senate archives and records of the Library of Congress failed to show any previous instance in which the State of the Union was postponed or canceled. The White House said Tuesday that Reagan's speech would be postponed until Feb.

4. DISASTER era -era 'IN SPACE TALLAHASSEE Gov. Bob Graham proposed Wednesday that the state build a monument to honor the seven crew members who died tragically when the space shuttle Challenger exploded off Florida's shore. "The seven brave astronauts came from throughout the United States, but their most heroic and tragic effort began in Florida," Graham said. "In honor of these brave men and women, and in recognition of America's pioneering efforts to explore new worlds, I am proposing that Florida build a suitable memorial to the space shuttle Challenger astronauts." At a news conference in his office, Graham said he would ask the Cabinet on Tuesday to approve a resolution directing the Department of Natural Resources to develop a design and site for the monument.

He said it should be a "respectful, dignified memorial" built in a state park near Cape Canaveral. Graham also said he would not resume campaigning or running television ads for his U.S. Senate race until President Reagan ends a week of national mourning for the shuttle crew. Only hours before Challenger exploded Tuesday, Graham, a Democrat, announced that he would challenge U.S. Sen.

Paula Hawkins, for her Senate set. Then the tragedy occurred, and Graham, who had just arrived in Jacksonville for the start of a three-day campaign swing around the state, called off his trip and headed home to Tallahassee. He said politics have no place during a national tragedy, but politics did surface Wednesday. Though Graham refused to say whether Hawkins should cancel her campaign plans over the next few days, his campaign manager Jim Eaton showed no such hesitation. He wrote one of Hawkins' strategists asking that the senator consider temporarily withdrawing her political ads from the air because "this is not the time for partisan politics." The strategist, Charles Black, said Hawkins had already decided to do exactly that, reversing her decision of the previous day to let the commercials air.

At his press conference, Graham was asked whether he feared that his proposal for a monument would be viewed as a political act. "It's not a political act," the governor replied. "It's an act of recognition of the special relationship that Florida feels for these seven courageous Americans and our efforts to memorialize their bravery." AP London papers headline the shuttle disaster. MOSCOW Mikhail S. Gorbachev sent a telegram to President Reagan on Wednesday, saying that Soviet citizens are grieving over the deaths of seven astronauts killed in the explosion of space shuttle Challenger.

The European Space Agency (ESA) expressed support for the space shuttle program, saying that "the ESA retains total confidence into the space shuttle program and is convinced of its necessity." The ESA is considering a French-backed plan for a manned European shuttle called Hermes to begin flying in 1995 on Ariane 5, an updated version of the unmanned rocket currently used to launch satellites in competition with the U.S. shuttle. In a telegram to Reagan reprinted by the official Soviet news agency Tass, Gorbachev said, "We partake of your grief at the tragic death of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger." Soviet astronauts, who shared a joint Apollo spacecraft mission with U.S. astronauts in 1975, sent a message of "profound condolences to the American colleagues and the families of the deceased." The government evening newspaper, Izvestia, reported, however, that Christa McAuliffe, the first private U.S. citizen to go on a space shuttle mission, had been on the flight because Reagan was trying to appease educators angered at his policies.

Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Polish Communist Party secretary and president, and Lech Walesa, founder of the outlawed Polish trade union Solidarity, each sent a message of condolences to Reagan. Pope John Paul II sent his "heartfelt condolences to the American people" in a brief message to Reagan. In Peking, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said China expressed its "deepest sympathy and condolences to the U.S. government and people" in a message to Reagan. In Brussels, Belgium, Prime Minister Wilfried Martens called the crew of Challenger pioneers, saying, "We not only bid farewell to seven young American citizens, but also to seven pioneers of mankind in its conquest of space.

"May this tragic accident not mean the end of scientific research and exploration of the universe. Then their sacrifice will not have been in vain," Martens said. The shuttle disaster raised questions about the Hermes program, but French Science Minister Hubert Curien stressed that the program will continue. Frederic d'Allest, managing director of Arianes-pace, canceled a press conference scheduled for Wednesday at which he would have disclosed future plans for a European shuttle. Meanwhile, the government in West Germany postponed plans to recruit six new astronauts and expects a scheduled joint space mission with the United States to be delayed..