Journalist-in-Space Candidates Narrowed to 40

Eight Western Region semifinalists in NASA’s Journalist in Space program were announced Wednesday in Fullerton.

The 40 journalists selected in five regional competitions ranged from small-town newsman Robert M. White II of Mexico, Mo., to broadcast legend Walter Cronkite. The field will be narrowed to five, and the winner will fly on a space shuttle mission at an unscheduled date.

Cal State Fullerton was among the five universities whose schools of journalism were selected as screening agencies for the Journalist in Space program. Edgar P. Trotter, director of Cal State Fullerton’s communications department, said the eight Western Region semifinalists are:

A. Blaine Baggett, Los Angeles, executive producer for KCET-TV (Channel 28); Timothy T. Ferris, Hollywood, a free-lance journalist; Michael W. Gold, San Rafael, Calif., contributing editor for Science 86 magazine; Richard Hart, San Francisco, reporter for KPIX-TV; Thomas J. (Jay) Mathews, Pasadena, bureau chief for the Washington Post; Lee N. McEachern Jr., Greenbrae, Calif., reporter for KGO-TV in San Francisco; Charles W. Petit, San Francisco, reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, and Peter M. Rinearson, Seattle, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Seattle Times.

The eight were culled from 20 quarterfinalists by a panel of news professionals who interviewed the candidates Monday and Tuesday.

The program drew applications from 1,703 journalists across the nation. The number was reduced to 100--20 in each of the five regions--last month.

Among the other semifinalists are New York Times’ science writer John Noble Wilford, who won a 1984 Pulitizer Prize for his space and science reporting, and four ABC correspondents: Barry Serafin, James T. Wooten, William B. Blakemore and Lynn B. Sherr.

Two Los Angeles Times reporters, Patricia Klein, of the San Fernando Valley edition, and Marcida Dodson, of the Orange County edition, were quarterfinalists but did not make the final 40.