Protest Planned Against NASA's Pluto Probe Launch

The GlobalNetwork Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Spaceof Brunswick, Maine has called for a demonstration at Cape Canaveral Air ForceStation in Florida on Jan. 7 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm EST (1600-1800 GMT).

The protestwill highlight opposition to NASA's planned NewHorizons launch on January 17 that will carry a cache of plutonium to powerthe Pluto-bound probe's radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).

To belaunched by an Atlas 5 booster, New Horizons will head out on a long distancejourney to shoot past Pluto in 2015. After that flyby, the New Horizons probe-- given NASA-approved extended mission money -- is to study still-to-beselected Kuiper Belt objects, ancient, icy and rockymini-worlds that are leftovers from the formation of the solar system.

In astatement from Global Network Coordinator, Bruce Gagnon: "We might have escapedCassini, we might escape New Horizons, but with plansto put nuclear reactors on the Moon to power bases there in the coming years,NASA will be launching a host of these missions. One thing we have learnedis that sooner or later, space technology can fail."

        For Scientist and Englishwoman, PlutoMission is Precious