European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 31, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 the stars and stripes Friday. March 31.1989 America s firs commercial rocket roars toward space after its launch in new Mei Ilco. Firm launches private efforts in space work White Sands missile Range . A the nation s first private spaceship blasted olt wednesday fora 15-Minutc sub Orbi jul flight thai sponsors Hope will usher in the age of the , commercial space Industry. It s the first of Many Ari we think it s the real. Breakthrough said Bill Vance whose  services inc., launched the Consort 1 1 i thought it was terrific said Carol Lane director of the transportation department s division that licensed Consort i. It s a great begin  the rocket s payload of six scientific experiments underwent. Near weightlessness for a Little. More than seven minutes during the flight. The rocket Rose 178 Miles and fell 0 Earth about 38 Miles North  launch pad at White Saiid missile Range. Space. Services a Houston based company that employs 14 people pioneered private space exploration Fay launching the Conestoga i from Matagorda Island Texas with a Dummy pay Load in september 1982. The company dealt with is government agon pics to gel permission to launch Consort i space services plans similar suborbital launches in the next couple of years and is applying for a License to be the first private contractor to Send a satellite into  Comet test shows evidence of Supernova blast Washington a an unusual chemical com position found in Halley s Comet suggests dial a Star May have exploded near the Sun during inc formation of he solar system some 4.6 billion years ago Accord ing to astronomers Susan Wyckoff an Arizona stale University professor of physics and astronomy said wednesday that a spectrum analysis of elements in 1h Alley s Comet shows that its ratio of Carbon isotopes is unlike any tested elsewhere in the solar system this suggests she said a Supernova exploded near the Sun Ana contaminated the Gas Cloud hat later condensed to form the planets and other objects orbiting near he Sun. ,. If this hypothesis is Correct it Means Hal when the is. On worker in suit against Dod contractor los Angeles a the govern men has joined a Whill Blower lawsuit that accuses Litton Indus tries inc. Of overcharging the 1 in Wagon s25 million for , according to court documents unsealed wednesday. The Justice department decision 10 intervene in the suit by a former Litton employee suggests government investigators believe the allegations May have Merit. Mary Mcc Nimon a spokeswoman for the . At Torney s office in los Angeles declined to comment on. The action. The lawsuit filed last april by former lit Len manager James Canon alleges that the company in effect charged the government for work it did for commercial customers using the same computer system. Litton spokesman John Thorn denied wrongdoing by the Beverly Hills based company which makes electronic navigation Anil control gear for a variety of military planes and missiles. The lawsuit alleges the company programmed computers to tinder record the amount of commercial work while properly recording the volume of govern ment work at the Litton computer services division inthe los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. Overcharges on dozens of computer design and engineering contracts from 1981 through 1987 amounted to at cast $25 million alleged Carton s attorney John k.Phillips., the action was brought under the false claims act which entitles those who report fraud against the government to gel up to 25 percent of any damages awarded. V Carton decided to file suit Only after complaints to company officials and a Pentagon fraud hot line failed to bring action Phillips said. He told everybody within the division. And they did t do anything the lawyer said Vale talked to somebody at the hot line in general terms but he was not persuaded or convinced that they were really going to make a serious Effort to do something about this Thorn refused to comment on the allegations. How. Ever he main mined thai joint government civilian use of the computer system saved the Pentagon Money because civilian work could be scheduled during Slack limes in the government contracts. That process helped defray the operating Cost of the system he said. We re going to fight it Thorn said. We think inc charges have no Merit whatsoever.". The lawsuit does t specify which military systems might be involved in the alleged overcharges. It does t1 name company officials responsible  the alleged overcharging but Phillips said Canon believed knowledge went at least As High As the top level in division management. Carton who was technical director at the division from 1984 to 1987, discovered the alleged Cost shifting while conducting a prof ability study on the company s to commercial accounts Phillips said. Cormer Cial customers included businesses As diverse Asl Jiser -. Riecl and Flynt publications publisher of hard porn Hustler Magazine. Carton 46, left Litton on Friendly terms during a reorganization of the division s management in Early l9s7and now works for another defense contractor Northrop corp., the attorney  addition to its electronics work Litton builds Navy ships at its Ngalu shipyard in 1 , miss. Sun formed it did t form As an isolated Star said Wyckoff. Like Many other stars we know in the Gal Axy inc Sun May have formed in a group or Cluster of  one or More  other stars in the Cluster could have become a Supernova. In such Stellar explosions she said new chemical elements arc formed and ejected. 1 f this occurred near enough to contaminate me Cloud from which Earth and other pans of the solar system were formed then traces of those chemical Iso Lopes would be found on those bodies. H Alley s Comet would have escaped this Supernova contamination because it is believed to have formed in a Region called the Kuiper Bell which it about 100 limes farther from the Sun than i Luio the outermost of the planets. Stateside Jacksonville will lift much despised Road tolls Jacksonville Fla