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ByMarciaDunn TheAssociatedPress CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. NASA's next Mars mission is still alive. Instead of scrapping the grounded Mars In- Sight spacecraft, the space agency announced Wednes- day it's shooting for a 2018 launch. The robotic lander was supposed to lift off this month, but ended up sidelined in December by a leak in a key French in- strument. Project manag- ers said the device should be redesigned in time. May 2018 represents the next available launch window. Opportunities to launch to Mars arise just every two years, based on the alignment of Earth and its neighbor. The InSight spacecraft aims to study the interior of Mars by drilling deep within. The sensors for the French seismometer need to operate in a vacuum chamber in order to mea- sure subtle ground move- ments. The vacuum cham- ber was leaking. The other main science instrument, a German heat-flow probe, was ready to fly. It's unknown how much the two-year delay will cost. NASA's only other option was to kill the project. John Grunsfeld, head of NASA's science mission directorate, said the sci- entific goals are compel- ling and the repair plans are sound. The Jet Propul- sion Laboratory in Pasa- dena, California, will take over the redesign, building and testing of the vacuum chamber, while the French space agency focuses on the science instrument itself. "The quest to under- stand the interior of Mars has been a long-standing goal of planetary scientists for decades," Grunsfeld said in a statement. "We're excited to be back on the path for a launch, now in 2018." Mars is NASA's prime focus these days. Just last week, astronaut Scott Kelly completed a 340-day mis- sion at the International Space Station that's con- sidered a scientific step- pingstone for sending hu- mans to the red planet in the 2030s. Another NASA Mars lander — this one a car-sized, wheeled rover — is scheduled for a 2020 launch. The red planet al- ready is teeming with ac- tive spacecraft, including NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on the sur- face, and Odyssey, Mars Re- connaissance Orbiter and Maven orbiter from high above. Europe has its Ex- press spacecraft in orbit around the red planet. Europe is launching an- other Mars mission Mon- day from Kazakhstan — an orbiter for measuring atmospheric gases and a lander collectively known as ExoMars 2016. 2018 TARGET NASAsalvagesMarsmissionthatshouldhavelaunchedbynow NASA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS This August 2015artist's rendering provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech depicts the InSight Mars lander studying the interior of Mars. By Michael Graczyk The Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS A man convicted of killing five people including his ex-wife in a 1997 shooting rampage near Houston was put to death Wednesday. Coy Wesbrook's lethal in- jection was the eighth this year nationally and fourth in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any state. Two Geor- gia inmates have been ex- ecuted so far in 2016, plus one each in Alabama and Florida. Before being executed, the 58-year-old Wesbrook apologized profusely to some of his victims' rela- tives who witnessed the punishment. "I want to say that I'm sorry for the pain that I have caused you people," he said. "I'm sorry I can't bring everybody back. I wish things could have been a lot different." Wesbrook said he loved his daughter and all his supporters. "I pray that the Lord take care of me and all of you," he said. He concluded by tell- ing relatives of his victims that he "can understand your outrage and why you are mad at me. God be with all of us." As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital took effect, he took two deep breaths, then began snor- ing. A few seconds later, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m. CST. The execution was de- layed about 90 minutes. Texas Department of Crim- inal Justice spokesman Ja- son Clark said prison offi- cials had anticipated an ad- ditional appeal would be filed by a death penalty op- ponent whose appeal hours earlier was rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court. That appeal sought an- other review of claims that Wesbrook was men- tally impaired and ineli- gible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings. "Out of an abundance of caution, we waited, and when nothing was filed, we went forward (with the ex- ecution)," Clark said. Wesbrook killed his ex- wife, Gloria Jean Coons, 32; her roommate, Diana Ruth Money, 43; and three men: Antonio Cruz, 35, Anthony Ray Rogers, 41, and Kelly Hazlip, 28. Wesbrook, a former se- curity guard and delivery driver, married Coons in 1995. They divorced the following year but con- tinued seeing each other. They had lunch Nov. 12, 1997, and talked about rec- onciling. That was on his mind when he showed up that night at her apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston. Instead, he found people partying. He testified at his 1998 trial that Coons humili- ated him by having sex with two of the men at the party while he was there. He said when he tried to leave, Cruz grabbed the keys to his truck and joined others in taunting him. He said he "lost it," walked out, grabbed a rifle he kept in the truck and returned, shooting each person once. Coons was the final victim. Court records show the five shots were fired within 40 seconds. Each victim was shot at close range. Neighbors who heard the gunfire and called po- lice saw Wesbrook emerge from the apartment, place the rifle inside his truck and stand calmly by the tailgate of the pickup to wait for sheriff's deputies to arrive. "If I could change things and turn back time and bring all these people back and I could be in my right mind and not under the in- fluence of any alcohol, none of this would have taken place," Wesbrook said re- cently from death row. At least 10 other Texas inmates are scheduled to be executed in the coming months, including two later this month. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Texas man executed for 1997 shooting rampage that killed 5 By John Rogers The Associated Press SIMI VALLEY Three days of formal mourning for former first lady Nancy Reagan be- gan Wednesday as her cas- ket was taken in a police- escorted motorcade up an empty freeway for a public viewing at the Ronald Rea- gan Presidential Library. The procession from Santa Monica passed be- neath a large American flag on a stretch of nor- mally congested highway and then turned onto the Ronald Reagan Freeway where firefighters in dress blues saluted from atop fire trucks parked on over- passes and other observers held their hands over their hearts. As the procession turned up the long, steep driveway to the library in the hills of Simi Valley, more than 100 docents held small flags. Members of the armed services carried the casket past a gurgling courtyard fountain into the library, where daughter Patti Da- vis, dressed in black, was among about 20 family members and close friends who attended a short prayer service at the closed casket. "May angels surround her and saints release her to Jesus," the Rev. Stuart Ken- worthy, vicar at the Wash- ington National Cathedral, said during the 10-minute service. The Rev. Donn Moomaw, the Reagan family's pastor, read from the 23rd Psalm, which begins, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." Attendees included the children of Ronald Reagan's son Michael and Dennis Revell, the widower of the president's late daughter Maureen. Michael Reagan and the president's other son, Ron Prescott Reagan, are expected at Friday's fu- neral. After the private service, House Speaker Paul Ryan paid his respects, bowing his head in prayer aside the casket and making the sign of the cross. The casket was covered in white roses and peo- nies, Mrs. Reagan's favor- ite flower. Earlier in the day, af- ter a short private service at a Santa Monica funeral home, the casket was car- ried by pallbearers that in- cluded members of Rea- gan's Secret Service detail to a hearse for the final 45-mile journey to the hill country northwest of Los Angeles where two days of public viewing precede the funeral. Several hun- dred onlookers stretched along the boulevard lead- ing away from the Tudor- style funeral home, holding up cellphones and cameras to capture photos. "She was just a very classy woman, always," said Jeanie Maurello, a medical assistant at Providence St. John's Health Center. "I thought she did a wonderful job. 'Just Say No' to drugs, she was behind all that." Another medical assis- tant, Lupe Salazar, said she was also an admirer. "She did a lot of work that helped the country," Salazar said. Maurello added: "There's always a great woman be- hind every great man." Friday will be the fu- neral, which was planned down to the smallest de- tails by the former first lady herself. Just as she was al- ways by his side in life, Nancy Reagan will be laid to rest just inches from her husband on a hillside tomb facing west toward the Pa- cific Ocean. Before her death she planned the funeral's flower arrangements, the music to be played by a Marine Corps band and the people who re- ceived invitations to the pri- vate memorial. Among those who had RSVP'd for the service were former President George W. Bush and his wife, for- mer first lady Laura Bush; former first lady Rosalynn Carter; first lady Michelle Obama; and former first lady Hillary Clinton. "No doubt about it, the most important of her spe- cial requests was that she be laid to rest right next to the president, as close as possible," said John Heu- busch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Pres- idential Foundation and Li- brary. The hourlong service, to which approximately 1,000 people have been in- vited, was to take place on the library's lawn. Those with White House connections who have said they will attend include President Richard Nixon's daughter Tricia Nixon Cox and President Lyndon John- son's daughters Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and Luci Ba- ines Johnson. Other guests will include Katie Couric, Chris Matthews, Newt and Callista Gingrich, Anjel- ica Houston, Wayne New- ton and Mr. T, the Ronald Reagan Foundation said Wednesday. Mr. T was in- volved in Mrs. Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug ef- forts during the 1980s. PUBLIC VIEWING Mo ur ne rs p ay r es pe ct s to former first lady Nancy Reagan | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2016 8 A