Scrantonian Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • 13

i Scrantonian Tribune, Monday, November 14, 19S8 13 Shuttle astronauts review emergency escape plans 7 By William Harwood UPI SCIENCE WRITER CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) The shuttle Atlantiss crew reviewed emergency escape procedures at the launch pad Sunday with a final countdown test on tap Monday to clear the way for blastoff around Nov. 30 on a secret military flight. Wish it was launch day, shuttle skipper Robert Hoot Gibson told reporters at the launch pad under a clear blue sky. We want to save some of this weather for another couple of weeks.

As for launch preparations, Gibson said: It looks pretty good so far. The dress-rehearsal countdown, a traditional milestone in a shuttles launch processing, began Sunday at 7: 40 a.m. EST. It was scheduled to end at 11 a.m. Monday With a simulated last-second launch abort.

Atlantis is scheduled to blast off on the 27th shuttle mission the second since the Challenger disaster sometime between 6:32 a.m. EST and 9:32 a.m. around Nov. 30, although the date could slip another day or so because of work to replace a balky valve in a hydraulic unit. A firm launch date is expected to be announced this week following a formal flight readiness review Tuesday and Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center.

Because the 27th shuttle mission is a classified flight to launch a top-secret spy satellite, few details are being released by NASA. The exact launch time will not be released until nine minutes before blastoff and it is not known how long Atlantis will stay in orbit. Gibson and his crewmates co- pilot Guy Gardner, Richard Mike Mullane, Jerry Ross and William Shepherd planned to don bulky 70-pound spacesuts early Monday before climbing aboard Atlantis for the final hours of the dressrehearsal countdown. Astronauts board the shuttle at the 195-foot level of the launch pad gantry. On the opposite side of the gantry from the shuttle access arm are seven slidewire baskets hanging below cables that stretch 1,200 feet to the ground below.

In an emergency, astronauts and launch pad technicians could jump in the enclosed baskets for a swift ride to a bunker at the base of the launch pad. Depending on the situation, the group could get out of the area in an armored personel carrier stationed nearby. Gibson and company reviewed those escape procdures Sunday. United Press International fly The five military astronauts that will fly aboard the space shuttle Atlantis prepare to enter an armor personnel carrier to practice emergency exit procedures at the cter Sunday- They are, from left: Mike Mullane, William Shepherd; Guy Gardner; Jerry Ross; and commander Robert Gibson. Eastern shrinking, story says MIAMI (UPI) 'In the two-, years since Eastern Airlines was sold to TexSSAlr, nearly? one in three employees has left -or been fired, its only profitable assets have been sold, and lts losses continue to'ounty a report said Eastern shrink s-while Texas Airs other the barely unionized, lower cost-' Continental, continues to according to a in -The Miami Herald.

The newspaper noted that4 when Texas Air owner Frank Lorenzo took controTtif Eastern Nov. 15, 1986, he. prdmised he would make no changes in the -airline. Lorenzo, hoWdyei'; said that considering Easterns huge-losses $233.7 million so far this year he had no choice but to raise cash by selling the companys best asSetk. Lorenzos Houston holding company, Texas Air, already owned Continental- -and New York Air when it bought Eastern.

Lorenzo soon acquired 1 1 People Express and Frontier and folded them and New York Air into Lorenzo broke Continental unions by taking the compahy 1 into bankruptcy proceedings. Easterns union leaders insist Lorenzo also wants- to force them out and turiuEastern into -a lower-cost, nonunion opera- tion. They accuselEXbrenzo oty cannibalizing Easfrm for th6 benefit of Confrwwgtal andy Texas Air, the riSwpaper re-Yj ported. t- Eastern has had lhtee major 1 rounds of layoffsjstppe Air took over, and; now has; some 12,500 fewee-employees than in the fall of 198C. In other Eastern 1 since Texas Air took over, the paper noted: -Since the fall of-1986, 30 of Easterns 286 jetliners have been grounded, sold or leased and Eastern has retrgated from 14 cities.

-According to reports filed with the Securities and Ex- change. Commission.laSt'yeaFIJ' Eastern paid $15.1 Million in management apd Jdiinistra "live fees to Texas Airr Soviets nearly ready try at shuttle launch for second The shuttle itself is scheduled to complete at least two orbits before a fully automatic landing is attempted on a three-mile-long runway at Baikonur just seven miles from the launch pad. The Soviets have not yet indicated whether the launch or landing will be televised live and few details about the progress of the countdown have been released. A Radio Moscow English-language news broadcast monitored in the United States MOSCOW (UPI) The countdown for a second attempt to launch the Soviet space shuttle Buran on its unmanned maiden voyage early Tuesday apparently stayed on schedule Sunday with no word to the contrary from Soviet space officials. The official news agency Tass reported Saturday that blastoff was planned for 6 a.m.

Tuesday Moscow time, or 10 p.m. EST Monday, and that the shuttles countdown was under way at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Central Asia. The first American shuttle, Columbia, was launched with a crew of two when it blasted off on its maiden flight in April 1981, but the Soviets elected to launch their new shuttle unmanned before putting cosmonauts on board. Buran, which means snow storm in English, will be carried into orbit by a powerful Energia liquid-fueled booster, the most powerful operational rocket in the world and one that has only flown once before. Sunday noted that two cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov had surpassed a 326-day space endurance record Friday.

Meanwhile, another important event in the Soviet space program will soon take place, Radio Moscow said. On the 15th of this month, at 6 a.m. Mocow time, this country is to launch its first reusable spaceship, Buran. Buran. will perorm an unmanned flight in an automatic mode.

No details about the progress of the countdown were provided. In any case, the advent of a Soviet shuttle, in concert with a mature fleet of unmanned rockets and trusty Soyuz manned spacecraft, gives the Russian space program an unmatched capability when it comes to carrying payloads into orbit or returning cargo to Earth. The, Soviets. had hoped to launch Buran before the Americans could launch the shuttle' Discovery' on the first post-Challenger flight but technical problems delayed the Russian test program and Discovery got off the ground first on Sept. 29.

The first attempt to launch Buran came exactly one month later but the countdown was aborted just 51 seconds before liftoff when a launch pad gantry failed to retract far enough. The cause of the delay has now been eliminated and the Energia system with the Buran orbiter is undergoing prelaunch preparations, Tass said Saturday. Unlike the U.S. shuttle, the Soviets intend to launch theirs only two or three times a year, using it primarily to service and retrieve damaged satellites or space station components. The Soviets will continue to put the bulk of their satellites into orbit using conventional boosters.

At least two Soviet shuttles are known to exist and a top space official said at. a news conference last week that several shuttles ultimately would be manufactured. Northeastern market cools; home prices decline slightly By Frances Ann Burns County, Honolulu and San Francisco. John Tuccillo, the associations chief economist, said the housing market is softer 4throughout the northeast 'after leading the country in sales and rice, increases for several ears. While northern New Jersey ranked fourth in median price, it ranked 40th in terms of increases, Tuccillo said.

The median price was up 1.2 percent from 1987, compared to a national increase of 3.9 percent. Sales also slowed. Tuccillo reported 142,500 houses sold in the July to September period in New Jersey compared to 160,500 in the preceding three months, a drop of 11.2 percent. The state ranked 10th in the total number of sales. Realtors said the market has slowed especially for more expensive houses.

North Jersey home prices have escalated since the beginning of last year. The association reported a median price of $169,400 in the first quarter, increasing to 183,000 in the second and $190,300 in the third. The prices tumbled to $185,100 at the end of 1987, inching up to $186,600 in the beginning of this year before shooting up in the spring. The market foundered in the wake of its own success, Tuccillo said. UNITEDPRESS INTERNATIONAL The hot real estate market in northern New Jersey has cooled off in the- past few months, leading to a slight drop in home prices, according to a study by a national real estate group.

The report released this week at the annual convention of the National Association of Realtors found that one-family houses in the New York-New Jersey area had a median price of $192,600 in the third quarter of 1988, down from $194,000 in the second quarter. That is more than twice the national median of $90,200. But it puts North Jersey behind the booming areas of Orange Lemnitzer (Continued from page 1) The Management of Keystone JClty Residence wishes to express gratitude, to our staff for their dedication and tireless efforts during the recent fire at our facility at 406 N. Washington Avenue in Scranton; IM RAJ The result of the teamwork and the willingness of so many people to stay until the crisis was over was that our program and the lives of our residents were returned to normal in a very short period of time. ft home there.

He attendei Honesdale High School an graduated from the U.S. Mili tary Academy in 1920. He is survived by his wife Katherine Mead Tryoi Lemnitzer, and two children. The burial in Arlington Cem etery will follow a funeral mas at Old Post Chapel near thi Pentagon. program to our allies.

At the age of 51, Lemnitzer qualified as a parachutist and assumed command of an airborne division in Korea. He later became Far East Commander, then went on to Washington to become chief of staff. After retirement, Lemnitzer served on President Fords 1975 panel that investigated domestic operations of the CIA. Lemnitzer was born Aug. 29, 1899, in Honesdale and kept a pro-German forces who had been tipped about the mission.

The two officers just missed being caught before making it back to the submarine. With the information they gathered, they were able to make critical adjustments to the Allies invasion plans. The story of that escapade and one in 1945 when he entered Switzerland in civilian clothes to negotiate the unconditional surrender of German forces in Italy and Austria are chronicaled in history books. He was a member of Gen. Eisenhowers staff in England at the beginning of the war and played a key role in establishing the U.S.

military assistance LIGHTED MIRROR BACK STAC The Only Store SHOP for Portly cisiiiES Our Spocltlty Siphon Atfther BtHFH I Stork SLACKS -M SHUTS u-j PAJAXAS-ROBEStoK-URSE JEANS 2S-72 CELTS to 12 FREE Gift Boxes STAS Ul Poor Am CURIO SALE -SALE PRICED $109 It would be difficult to imagine a more caring and committed group of people and our residents are fortunate indeed to.be under their guidance and supervision. t.tr.astt.E tiAiip.s Sties I Senrle TME-UP SPECIAL 19 Wick lnitnd Matt HitUit LMDIaCOlKlT ICC? $. AIN AVE IWEILERPIAZA SCR 31M731 Imamus in-2500 MsGTO urn lUjdsjsKyefo CARLS JftWr (mii Smbim Person! Attention Ask forCti A special THANK YOU to residents and staff at our Pocono facilities in Gouldsboro for opening their homes and their hearts in a time of need. Such dedication deserves public acknowledgement and appreciation! OrShorsodlc Surgeon Wishes to announce that his new office will be open Monday through Friday for the practice of orthopedic and hand surgery. DANK T017ER5, 0th FLOOR Wyoming Spruco Scranton, PA.

10503 Phone (717)342-5000 The Management ol Keystone City Residence, Ignatz Deutsch, President Henri Deutsch, Ph.D., Vice-President Eugene M. Langan, Executive Director Robert J. Fleese, Associate Director Linda Davis, Director of Residential Services.