STATE & NATION
BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2022 A5
Engine problem leads NASA to
Survey: Gun
scrub launch of new moon rocket control popular
with Ore. voters
BY MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL,
Fla. — A fuel leak and then
an engine problem during
final liftoff preparations led
NASA to call off the launch of
its mighty new moon rocket
Monday, Aug. 30 on its debut
flight with three test dum-
mies aboard.
The next launch attempt
will not take place until Fri-
day, Sept. 2 at the earliest and
could be off until next month.
The flight, when it hap-
pens, will be the first launch
in NASA’s Artemis project, a
quest to put astronauts back
on the moon for the time
since the Apollo program
ended 50 years ago.
As precious minutes ticked
away Monday morning,
NASA repeatedly stopped
and started the fueling of the
Space Launch System rocket
with nearly 1 million gallons
of super-cold hydrogen and
oxygen because of a leak of
highly explosive hydrogen.
The leak happened in the
same place that saw seepage
during a dress rehearsal back
in the spring.
Then, NASA ran into new
trouble when it was unable
to properly chill one of the
rocket’s four main engines,
officials said. Engineers con-
tinued working to pinpoint
the source of the problem af-
ter the launch postponement
was announced.
“This is a very complicated
machine, a very complicated
system, and all those things
have to work, and you don’t
want to light the candle until
it’s ready to go,” said NASA
Administrator Bill Nelson.
Referring to launch delays,
Nelson said: “It’s just part of
the space business and it’s
part of, particularly, a test
flight.”
The rocket was set to lift off
on a flight to propel a crew
capsule into orbit around the
moon. The six-week mission
was scheduled to end with
the capsule returning to Earth
in a splashdown in the Pacific
in October.
The 322-foot (98-meter)
spaceship is the most pow-
erful rocket ever built by
NASA, out-muscling even
the Saturn V that the Apollo
astronauts rode.
As for when NASA might
BY JOE SIESS
Oregon Capital Bureau
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel-TNS
Visitors to the Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, get a good
view of Artemis I, NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft, as it sits
at Launch Pad 39-B on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. The launch of the unmanned test flight on a moon-orbit
mission was scheduled for Monday, Aug. 29, but was delayed due to fuel leaks and an engine problem.
make another liftoff attempt,
launch commentator Derrol
Nail said engineers were still
analyzing the engine prob-
lem and “we must wait to see
what shakes out from their
test data.”
No astronauts were inside
the rocket’s Orion capsule.
Instead, the test dummies, fit-
ted with sensors to measure
vibration, cosmic radiation
and other conditions, were
strapped in for the shake-
down flight, meant to stress-
test the spacecraft and push
it to its limits in ways that
would never be attempted
with humans aboard.
Even though no one was
on board, thousands of peo-
ple jammed the coast to see
the rocket soar. Vice Pres-
ident Kamala Harris was
among the VIPs who arrived
for the event.
Assuming the shakedown
flight goes well, astronauts
will strap in for the second
mission and fly around the
moon and back as soon as
2024. A two-person lunar
landing could follow by the
end of 2025.
The problems seen Mon-
day were reminiscent of NA-
SA’s space shuttle era, when
hydrogen fuel leaks disrupted
countdowns and delayed a
string of launches back in
1990.
Later in the morning,
NASA also officials spotted
what they feared was a crack
or some other defect on the
core stage — the big orange
fuel tank with four main en-
gines on it — but they later
said it appeared to be just a
buildup of frost in a crevice of
the insulating foam.
Launch director Charlie
Blackwell-Thompson and her
team also had to deal with a
communication problem in-
volving the Orion capsule.
Engineers scrambled to
understand an 11-minute
delay in the communication
lines between launch con-
trol and Orion that cropped
up late Sunday. Though the
problem had cleared by Mon-
day morning, NASA needed
to know why it happened be-
fore committing to a launch.
Regardless of all the techni-
cal snags, thunderstorms ulti-
mately would have prevented
a liftoff.
Dark clouds gathered over
the launch site as soon as
Blackwell-Thompson halted
the countdown, with thunder
echoing across the coast.
Betsy Johnson gains a spot on ballot
BY GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Former state Sen. Betsy
Johnson has qualified for the
Nov. 8 general election as an
unaffiliated candidate for
governor.
“Damn straight,” Johnson
said in a statement.
“This is a momentous day
for Oregon.”
Oregon Secretary of State
Shemia Fagan issued a state-
ment Thursday, Aug. 25
that Johnson had submitted
37,679 valid signatures, well
above the threshold of 23,744
required. State law sets the
number as 1% of the total
vote in the most recent presi-
dential election.
Former House Speaker
Tina Kotek, D-Portland, won
the Democratic primary in
May. Former House Minority
Leader Christine Drazan,
R-Canby, won the Republi-
can race.
Kotek and Drazan won
closed primaries in which
only members of their own
party could cast ballots. The
system excluded the largest
share of voters — the 34%
with no party affiliation —
from voting for governor in
the primary election.
In November, all 2.9 mil-
lion voters vote for the same
slate of candidates.
Johnson on Thursday re-
turned to her central theme
since her announcement last
year, casting herself as run-
ning between a too-liberal
Democrat and too-conserva-
tive Republican.
“We have an incredible op-
portunity this year to reject
the extremes and elect an in-
dependent governor who will
put Oregonians first,” John-
son said Thursday.
Johnson supports abortion
rights, but in the Senate has
broken with Democrats on
gun control and recent efforts
to curb carbon pollution in
the state.
Drazan has cast Johnson’s
20 years as a Democratic law-
maker as evidence that she is
part of the one-party power
structure that has dominated
Salem for most of the past
two decades.
Kotek points to Johnson’s
gun and environmental re-
cord as showing she’s out of
step with the bulk of Orego-
nians who have kept Demo-
crats in the governor’s office
as a hedge against Republi-
can turmoil of recent years in
Washington.
Johnson raced ahead on
fundraising, paced by $1.75
million so far from Oregon’s
wealthiest resident, Nike
founder Phil Knight.
With major financial back-
ing from timber and con-
struction interests, Johnson
has reported over $10.5 mil-
lion in contributions, accord-
ing to Thursday’s state cam-
paign finance summaries.
Kotek has raised about $7.6
million, while Drazan has to-
taled about $6.3 million.
Kotek and Drazan have
received backing from their
party’s traditional allies, la-
bor and progressive interests
groups for Democrats, busi-
ness and conservative activ-
ists for Republicans.
But Johnson has already
spent about $6.9 million be-
fore even officially qualifying
for the election on Thursday.
Johnson’s campaign has
said the money is needed to
build a campaign infrastruc-
ture to compete with the ones
handed to Kotek and Drazan
by their national and state
parties.
Democratic and Republi-
can party groups have given
over $1 million each to Kotek
and Drazan, and are expected
to keep up contributions as
the race is touted in some
forecasts as a “toss-up.”
Johnson spent over
$300,000 on paid signature
gatherers to go along with her
volunteer “Betsy Brigades” to
ensure the Secretary of State’s
signature count didn’t come
up short.
The final statewide ballot
will be set Aug. 30. County
and local ballots must be fi-
nalized no later than Sept. 8.
The trio of women run-
ning for governor will ensure
a historic election in Novem-
ber.
No matter who wins, it will
be the first time that a woman
has succeeded a woman to
the state’s top job. Gov. Kate
Brown could not run again
because of constitutional
term limits.
Johnson is seeking to be-
come the second governor
in state history to be elected
without major party support.
Julius Meier won one term
in 1930.
Drazan is running to be the
first Republican to win the
office since Gov. Vic Atiyeh
was elected to a second term
in 1982.
Kotek is seeking to extend
the Democratic win streak
dating back to the election of
Neil Goldschmidt in 1986.
The ballot will feature three
major candidates with the
added twist that for the first
time since 2002, no incum-
bent or former governor will
be up for election.
The ballot will likely in-
clude at least two minor party
candidates. Even if they poll
just 5% of the vote altogether,
that may be enough to throw
a tight race into chaos.
A slim majority of Orego-
nians plan to vote for a can-
didate that supports more
gun control in the November
general election, according
to a new survey published by
the Oregon Values and Beliefs
Center.
The survey found that 54%
of Oregonians surveyed indi-
cated they are more likely to
vote for a candidate who sup-
ports more gun control, com-
pared to 19% of Oregonians
who said they are more likely
to vote for a candidate who is
in favor of less gun control.
Two and 10 Oregonians sur-
veyed were either undecided
or did not care, the survey
showed.
Women were found to
be more likely than men to
seek candidates who support
more gun control, the survey
found.
The values and belief cen-
ter, an independent, nonpar-
tisan research group, released
the survey Thursday. The
center surveyed 1,572 Oregon
residents ages 18 and older
between July 8 and July 16.
A previous gun control sur-
vey was released in June and
showed the majority of Ore-
gonians support stricter gun
laws.
The new survey was done
to provide more comprehen-
sive and nuanced results than
the previous survey, which
was meant to create more of a
baseline, said Amaury Vogel,
the associate executive direc-
tor of the Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center.
“In June we asked people
just a couple of questions that
were surface level questions
because everybody had just
gone through the shooting
in Buffalo and the shooting
in Uvalde,” Vogel said. “In
July we wanted to ask about it
particularly because we had
several mass shootings and a
rise in gun violence and it is
something that is a big factor
Oregon reports surge
in out-of-state patients
seeking abortions
BY CLAIRE RUSH
Associated Press/Report for
America
PORTLAND — Planned
Parenthood leaders in Or-
egon on Thursday, Aug. 25
said there has been a surge in
the number of people travel-
ing from out of state for abor-
tions, including from neigh-
boring Idaho, where most of
a near-total abortion ban has
taken effect.
“We are definitely seeing
an uptick as more and more
trigger bans are being put into
effect and laws are being en-
acted,” said Anne Udall, pres-
ident and CEO of Planned
Parenthood Columbia Willa-
mette.
“We’re seeing people from
all over,” Udall said. “Louisi-
ana, Texas, Mississippi, Idaho,
Florida.”
Oregon, along with Wash-
ington and California, has
sought to establish the West
Coast as an abortion safe ha-
ven, pledging to welcome pa-
tients traveling from states
where the procedure has been
banned or greatly restricted.
With summer
here, there is
lots of traveling.
Be safe &
have fun!
Feds warn of ‘rainbow fentanyl’ in Oregon
PORTLAND (AP) — At
least two notable seizures of a
brightly-colored version of fen-
tanyl this week in the Portland,
Oregon, area have prompted
the U.S. Attorney’s Office for
the District of Oregon and U.S.
Drug Enforcement Adminis-
tration to warn people to be on
the lookout for it.
Rainbow fentanyl, as it’s
known, is a version of the
highly-toxic and often fatal
synthetic opioid that can look
like sidewalk chalk, or candy,
officials said in a statement
Friday.
Rainbow fentanyl has ap-
peared recently in several
forms in cities across the
country.
Anyone who encounters
it or any version of fentanyl
is urged to refrain from han-
dling it and call 911 immedi-
ately.
“We urge all Oregonians
to be on the lookout for fen-
tanyl in our community and
respect the highly-toxic nature
of this substance,” said Steve
Mygrant, Chief of the Narcot-
ics and Criminal Enterprises
Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Of-
fice for the District of Oregon.
He said fentanyl is com-
monly disguised in fake pre-
scriptions pills and that the
fakes are indistinguishable
from real pills.
“If you find or come in con-
tact with pills not dispersed by
a licensed pharmacist, assume
they are fake and potentially
lethal,” Mygrant said.
Provisional data from the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention indicate there
were over 107,000 fatal drug
overdoses in the U.S. in 2021,
an increase of nearly 15%
from the previous year, federal
officials said. Synthetic opioids
— primarily fentanyl — ac-
counted for more than three
quarters of those deaths.
in the November election.”
The more recent survey
showed that about half of Or-
egonians indicated the recent
mass shootings do not affect
the likelihood they will vote
in the November election.
More than a third of Orego-
nians, or 36%, said they are
more likely to vote in Novem-
ber as a result of the recent
mass shootings.
The survey found the vast
majority of Oregonians, or
four in five residents, be-
lieve there should be some
level of gun control, and that
gun control laws in Oregon
should be stricter than they
are today.
The survey results showed
men in Oregon are more
likely to own guns than
women, and women are
united in wanting at least
some level of gun control,
with 88% of women com-
pared to 79% of men indicat-
ing they believe there should
be some gun control.
Deschutes County gun
owner Slater Kellstrom said
he believes the current gun
laws in Oregon should be en-
forced instead of passing new
laws.
“The amount of people,
both private citizens and pub-
lic officials, who don’t know
laws regarding guns and con-
cealed carrying of guns in
this state boggles my mind,”
Kellstrom said. “Officials
make laws or regulations or
pronouncements that directly
contradict established state
laws and suffer no repercus-
sions. Enforce the laws as
written, treat infractions as
serious matters not slaps on
wrists.”
The survey also found that
a strong majority, or 88% of
Oregonians, support back-
ground checks for all gun
purchases, preventing the sale
of firearms to those with cer-
tain mental health conditions,
as well as the expansion of
screening and treatment for
people with mental illnesses.
Shortly after the Supreme
Court overturned Roe v. Wade
on June 24, the Democratic
governors of the three states
issued a joint “multi-state
commitment,” saying they will
work together to defend abor-
tion access and protect patients
and providers.
Speaking at a Planned Par-
enthood clinic in Portland,
alongside Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown and Oregon Dem-
ocratic U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici, Udall said Planned
Parenthood was “fully com-
mitted” to serving people from
Idaho and other states.
Brown said she is working
with “colleagues up and down
the West Coast” to ensure
abortion access.
Bend is the site of the sole
Planned Parenthood clinic
serving the eastern half of
Oregon, a vast, rural area.
The small clinic, which has
struggled with staffing short-
ages and limited scheduling
availability, is hiring more
personnel and expanding
telehealth services to respond
to the growing demand.
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