Hey NASA: Send It Up Uranus!-Opposition to Cassini Heats Up

by Al Decker

On October 15, NASA (Never A Straight Answer) launched the Cassini probe into space. As the article Plutonium: Probe Puts Life on Earth at Risk (EF!J, Beltane, 1997) reported, the spacecraft will carry 72.3 pounds of plutonium-238, the largest amount ever used in a space mission. The launch was originally scheduled for Columbus Day, but was delayed due to high winds and "technical difficulties."

There are numerous well-documented reasons why this mission is the height of human stupidity and arrogance, including the fact that the probe will perform a fly-by maneuver of the Earth in August 1999 at 42,300-miles-per-hour, just a few hundred miles above our atmosphere. In the case of a slight mistake, equipment failure or collision with another object, Cassini could easily enter the atmosphere and vaporize, showering the most deadly substance known across the planet.

There is always a danger to exploration, says NASA. After all, Columbus had to take risks. The original launch date on Columbus Day was, of course, no coincidence. Yet, the astute observer will realize that while Columbus was only risking his life and that of his crew, this glorious mission risks all life on Earth for the next thousand human generations.

NASA's Environmental Impact Statement for the mission predicted that the number of people who "could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure" in the event of an "inadvertent re-entry" into our atmosphere is 5 billion of the estimated 7 or 8 billion world population in 1999. Two-hundred forty-four workers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have already suffered plutonium poisoning from working on this project.

NASA scientist Dr. Jeff Cuzzi insists that Cassini is a "million times safer than you think" and the risk of an accident a "million times less likely than getting struck by lightning." This means a million times less than nothing and is nothing less than complete drivel. It's prima facie absurd to deny that rockets blow up. I learned that playing with toy rockets as a kid. Yet these scientists operate in a fantasy world where studying the rings of Saturn is worth $3.4 billion and the risk of global catastrophe.

Hell No, We Won't Glow

Despite the appalling silence of the American media, there is growing international and national outrage against Cassini. Bruce Gagnon of the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice is working with 400 organizers around the globe on this issue. The two weeks prior to Columbus Day, the Coalition organized daily vigils, picnics and rallies outside the gates of Cape Canaveral, including one rally on October 4 with over a thousand people demanding an end to the madness. That day, after a few hours of speeches from scientists, activists and religious leaders, people followed a contingent from Grandmothers for Peace to the front gate, where the raging grannies prepared to go over the fence and head toward the launch pad. In a touching show of grace, the several hundred tooled-up riot cops opened the gates for the grannies, but promptly closed them on the masses. Shortly thereafter, a Cascadian draped thick carpets over the razor-wire fencing, and a stream of people went over the top into the arms of the police. Twenty-seven people were arrested for trespassing and may face federal charges.

A German activist who has worked on this issue for three years told the rally about two simultaneous demonstrations in Germany. There were several other gatherings elsewhere in the US. Activists from the Native Forest Network in Vermont locked down to their senator's desk (see___). A California resident did a week-long hunger strike. Two British women from the Menwith Hill peace camp were arrested in London spray painting "Stop Cassini" on the American Embassy-events which we don't hear about through the corporate media.

The federal government put all NASA facilities in the county on "alpha threatcom" security alert a week before the launch date. Rumors suggested that some folks were going to try and get in and disturb the launch nonetheless. In the security zone around the launch, soldiers had permission to shoot and helicopters conducted regular overflights with thermal-imaging devices. In addition, the swamps and scrub surrounding the base are home to alligators, diamondback and cottonmouth snakes, wild boars and encephalitis-bearing mosquitoes. It would have been possible to enter the coastal waters via boat, but Florida Today reported that Navy, Coast Guard, Marine and state vessels were on patrol, and the density of sharks off the Florida coast is second only to that of Australia. At blast-off, all protesters but one left the site outside Cape Canaveral's gates.

America "Uber Alles"

The largely untold story of the Cassini mission is its role as an icebreaker to soften up the public to nukes and weapons in space. There are 12 more plutonium missions planned after Cassini in the near future.

The US Space Command, NASA and the Clinton Administration have all acknowledged the "crucial" role of nuclear power and weapons in space. There have been 24 American reactors in space already, as well as many from the Soviets. Nuclear power will be used to deflect or blow up asteroids; to power satellites for military, communications and high-definition TV; as propulsion fuel for trips to Mars and Pluto; to enable nuclear disposal in space; and to mine the moon, other planets and asteroids for helium-3 (used in nuclear fusion), as well as rare radioactive isotopes of potassium uranium, thorium, rubidium, etc. (uranium and thorium can be used for nuclear reactors). Two nuclear reactors for mining colonies on Mars are planned for 2007.

Even more frightening and offensive is the fact that for the military, space is the ultimate "high ground." Colonel Mike Heil, commander of the US Air Force Phillips Laboratory, says that "high ground has always been a superior and defensible platform from which to wage war... from its position in space, the Air Force will eventually see every potential target on the face of the earth and, if need be, engage them militarily."

Furthermore, the military plans to deny enemy nations access to outer space. Clinton officials regularly speak of "force multipliers for the domination of the planet." Many people believed that Bubba and Al would follow through on their pledges to end the Star Wars program, but in a typical maneuver, however, they didn't kill the program, they just changed its name to Ballistic Missile Defense and took the $3-billion-plus budget out of a different pot. Despite international agreements banning the militarization and nuclearization of space, Bubba and Al are firmly behind the military program to put America literally "above all."

The Inside Story

There has been a surprising amount of dissension within the ranks of former and present agency people over the Cassini mission. A week before the original launch date the Florida Coalition received a message from a NASA employee reading: "Are you aware that Johnson [Space Center in Houston] is hiring employees off the street with no safety experience to monitor the safety proceedings at the Cape-and the present Pad Safety personnel are protesting working conditions and extended hours due to the Cassini launch? And that the present employees at Johnson Controls responsible for the safety on the launch pads are paid less than a painter? And that there is a shortage of Johnson Controls Pad Safety personnel so employees are working flex hours to cover all the safety requirements?"

Alan Kohn, a former NASA emergency preparedness officer, told an anti-Cassini rally earlier this summer, "I expect people to speak out regardless the cost. If you're going to keep quiet about an issue like this, then your jobs aren't worth a bucket of warm spit. If you're going to give up your soul and your conscience just to keep your jobs, the jobs aren't worth it... If it means your jobs, so what? Who cares about a job? Health and the lives of the public are more important than any job on this Earth, including the presidency of the United States."

Plutonium did not exist on Earth 60 years ago, and now traces of it are found in soil samples on all continents at all latitudes. But even if it weren't being used for this mission, the question still remains: why the hell are we doing it? Why is it necessary?

Cassini opponents who support a nuke-free space program have single-issue blinders on. They unfortunately ignore the problems of the toxic spills into the wildlife preserve and residential area surrounding Cape Canaveral; the damage to the ozone layer with every blast-off; the considerably impact on climate change through greenhouse gas emissions; the deeply offensive nature of this program to indigenous people and others who hold to notions of sacredness; and the unforgivable cost of the whole shebang, while social and environmental programs face wholesale elimination by a depraved neoliberal government.

The battle against Cassini is not over. There is still time to cancel the fly-by in 1999. With Cassini merely the tip of the iceberg for the nuclear space program, those who defend the Earth from plutonium poisoning have no shortage of work ahead.

For more information about nukes and weapons in space, contact the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, c/o the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, POB 90035, Gainesville, FL 32607; (352) 468-3295; e-mail: fcpj@afn.org; www.afn.org/~fcpj/space