‘Dream Is Still Alive’ : Shuttle Stages Holiday Show on Trip to Pad

Thousands came to view the shuttle Discovery in its new home on Launch Pad 39B Monday while an astronaut who will be on the first shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster proclaimed: “America, the dream is still alive.”

Discovery made its long-delayed trip to the launch pad by dawn’s early light, a milestone in the rebirth of America’s space program that was hailed later by workers who streamed by the pad in an 18-mile-long line of cars.

Earlier, astronaut David C. Hilmers greeted a crowd of 2,000 space center employees who cheered as the 85-ton spaceship rode a giant tracked transporter out of an assembly building into the glare of spotlights at 12:50 a.m.

‘Rise Again We Shall’

“It’s the mark of a great nation . . . that it can rise again from adversity,” Hilmers said. “And with Discovery, rise again we shall.”

Then the space center gates were opened to permit engineers, technicians, managers, secretaries and others to bring their families out on the Fourth of July holiday to view the spectacle.

In other Fourth of July celebrations across the nation, revelers gathered at the traditional outdoor concerts and parades, but fire works displays were dampened in many parts of the country by tinder-dry drought conditions.

In the nation’s heartland, hundreds of residents of Coralville, Iowa, lined the streets for the community’s annual Fourth of July parade and applauded a very international procession.

Along with regular staples such as fire trucks, marching bands, floats, clowns and politicians, citizens of the Soviet Union taking part in an American-Soviet Peace Walk marched down the 2-mile parade route. Later, the peace walkers met with residents at a pot luck meal.

About 220 Soviet citizens and 100 Americans are traveling across the country. They started June 17 in Washington.

12 Hours of Music

In Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 18,000 people jammed the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to hear Carlos Santana, Miles Davis, Mel Torme and a host of others during 12 hours of music at the Newport Jazz Festival. The two-day event attracted 33,100, the most ever for the 11-year-old festival.

Tens of thousands of people descended on the Mall in Washington, along the banks of the East River in New York City and in hundreds of other communities for traditional fireworks displays Monday night.

President and Mrs. Reagan invited friends and relatives to watch the Fourth of July fireworks display on the Mall from a White House balcony.

But in other parts of the country, fireworks were canceled because of the fire threat. When several Wisconsin communities canceled their shows, more than 580,000 people jammed Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan shore Sunday for a 4,000-rocket display. Traffic was so backed up that people driving into the area after 6 p.m. were “just basically spinning their wheels,” said police Sgt. Ken Romels.

Traffic Jammed

Traffic was heavy at the shuttle site in Florida, where security officials reported that more than 4,000 cars came through, and at times the drive to the pad took nearly two hours.

Discovery will be readied on its launch pad for an early September liftoff, the first since the Challenger disaster 2 1/2 years ago.

Reporters asked the drivers how they felt about once again seeing a shuttle on the pad, and the replies were unvarying in their enthusiasm: “Wonderful.” “It’s great.” “We’re back in business.” “Very Fourth of July.”

The Southland celebrates the Fourth. Stories and pictures on Page 1 of Metro.