Time

20

COVER: Discovery' s fiery launch lifts U. S. spirits and puts astronauts back into space

After a 32- month hiatus, the refurbished shuttle and its veteran five- man crew pass a crucial flight test, send a vital communications satellite into perfect orbit, and help Americans overcome their post- Challenger blues. But can NASA meet its new shuttle launch schedule? And can the U. S. afford expensive shuttle missions for tasks that rockets can do more cheaply? See SPACE.

26

NATION: In a TIME poll, Dukakis wins the debate but voters like Bush better

The national mood is the best in four years, and Bush benefits. -- Behind the rosy economic numbers of the Reagan boom, middle- class Americans feel squeezed. Once again this election poses a critical question: Are you better off? -- A backlash for the A. C. L. U. -- On the road with Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen, this week' s debaters. -- Shrinking the Underclass -- a campaign essay.

72

OLYMPICS: After a fall from glory, the Games struggle to regain innocence

Ben Johnson, the world' s fastest human, becomes sport' s most famous steroid abuser, pumping up suspicions of widespread drug abuse. -- Led by Flo- Jo' s joyous medal romp, the athletes run, jump, dunk and slam their way through a picturesque final week of records set and favorites upset. -- One man' s answer to why TV sees less than the eye of the beholder.

50

World

A Moscow shake- up and a Beijing slowdown are the price of reform.

-- Who' s up and who' s out in the Kremlin.

-- New hope in Haiti?

65

Video

Glasnost comes to Soviet TV as unprecedented programs break taboos and touch raw nerves. The viewers are spellbound.

86

Economy & Business

Moneymen look for ways to reduce Third World debt. -- On the takeover trail with the Hafts. -- Jet- propelled Gooney Birds.

90

Show Business

He' s been heard from beyond, seen at Burger King, revered at Graceland. Eleven years after Elvis' death, his cult is becoming a religion.

94

Books

Biographer Michael Holroyd provides a sense not only of what it was like to know Bernard Shaw but of what it was like to be him.

103

Medicine

France and China approve a pill designed to induce abortion. Will the U. S. follow suit? Not soon, and not without a battle.

104

Design

Impeccably restored, Washington' s Union Station will be a working depot again -- and perhaps the grandest public space in the U. S.

106

Essay

The rockets roared, and the shuttle is in orbit, but the U. S. space effort is only going in circles. How to soar once more?

6 Letters

13 American Scene

71 People

95 Fashion

98 Behavior

103 Milestones

Cover: Photograph by Red Morgan