PASADENA, California (AP) -- A two-story, $3.4 billion spacecraft carrying a load of deadly plutonium will zoom within 725 miles of Earth this week to gain momentum for the final leg of its meandering, seven-year voyage to Saturn. But anti-nuclear activists, concerned over the 72 pounds of carcinogenic cargo, aren't so sure. "The fact is space technology can and does fail," said Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. "And when you start using nuclear materials in increasing numbers, the odds of an accident increase." The probe will approach Earth at about 35,000 mph. Its speed will increase by about 11,000 mph after the swingby. At its closest point over the South Pacific, the probe might be visible from Pitcairn or the Easter islands. Activists fear that some sort of navigation or human error could cause the craft to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, showering the planet with deadly plutonium dioxide. Gagnon's group organized protests in the United States, England, Germany and elsewhere in June, but he admits there is little that can be done to change the spacecraft's course. A handful of anti-Cassini Web sites also have been set up. http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/bookmark.htm or http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
