Jake Skywalker

By Jacob V. Lamar Jr

As chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA's budget, Jake Garn once joked that if he did not get to fly on the space shuttle, he would not appropriate "another cent" to the agency. When NASA obligingly ticketed him for a trip, critics accused Garn of using his political clout to hitch a costly joyride--the ultimate congressional junket. But the Utah Republican dismissed such carping as "sour grapes." After undergoing four months of intensive training to prove that he had the right stuff, Garn blasted off aboard the 16th U.S. shuttle mission last Friday.

With its crew of five astronauts, one civilian engineer and one Senator, the shuttle Discovery's primary task is to launch two satellites. The first worked, but a military communications satellite launched Saturday suffered an apparent power failure and drifted uselessly in space. The astronauts are also expected to spend time toying around. To demonstrate the laws of physics to schoolchildren, they will be videotaped playing with such dime-store goodies as yo-yos, spinning tops, a Slinky and a windup mouse.

Garn will serve mainly as the shuttle's human guinea pig. He will be subjected to tests designed to increase understanding of space motion sickness, an affliction suffered by about half the people who go into orbit. In one of the "gastric motility" experiments, stethoscopic microphones were strapped to the Senator's midsection to record his stomach noises at takeoff (NASA has yet to release a tape of the senatorial rumblings). Said Garn: "I am hopeful that I can fill in a few of the pieces of the puzzle in the medical department."

Cartoonist Garry Trudeau, in his Doonesbury strip, dubbed Garn "Barfin' Jake." But the 52-year-old Senator held up well in preparations for the mission, which included being sealed in a dark bag to test his resistance to claustrophobia. During a spin in a simulator known as the "vomit comet," which is designed to induce motion sickness, Garn kept his food down.

A few astronauts who have waited more than a decade to go on a space flight were disgruntled by Garn's mission. The Senator, however, has impressive flight credentials. The son of a World War I pilot, he began flying at 16. As a naval pilot Garn flew transport missions in Viet Nam. All told, he has logged some 10,000 hours of flying time--more than any of NASA's 90 active astronauts except Air Force Colonel Joseph Engle. Garn is also in superb physical condition; he carries a muscular 170 lbs. on his 5-ft. 11-in. frame and has a resting pulse rate of 45.

What of President Reagan's campaign promise that the first private citizen in outer space would be a teacher? Garn retorts, with some logic, that he is not a private citizen. "I am a public official," he says. "I am concerned. I even flew the B-1 bomber years ago, to decide whether that was something I ought to vote for or not, and I've driven the M-1 tank for the same reason." * Despite the flak about Garn's flight, 69% of those polled in a recent Salt Lake City newspaper survey supported the mission. Such popularity must please Garn, who faces the down-to-earth task of running for re-election next year.

With reporting by Jerry Hannifin/Kennedy Space Center and Geoffrey Leavenworth/Johnson Space Center