STOP CASSINI EARTH FLYBY
Fact-Sheet
Traprock Peace Center and the Nuclear Abolition Task Force (Franklin/Hampshire CPPAX) are collecting signed petitions/statements to stop the Cassini flyby of Earth, which is scheduled for August 18, 1999. The citizens of this country and of the world should be very concerned about the Cassini Earth-flyby with its cargo of 72.3 lbs of deadly plutonium.
1. Three of the 24 U.S. space missions known to contain nuclear material have met with accidents, as have six out of the 39 Russian missions.
2. One of the above missions was the 1964 crash of a U.S. Transit 5BN-3 satellite - two pounds of radioactive plutonium burned up in the atmosphere. According to one European study in 1990, radioactive debris from the crash could still be found on "all continents and (at) all latitudes."
3. As Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility states, plutonium "is so toxic that less than one-millionth of a gram, an invisible particle, is a carcinogenic dose. One pound, if uniformly distributed could hypothetically induce lung cancer in every person on Earth."
4. Dr. Ernest Sternglass, professor emeritus of radiological physics at the University of Pittsburgh has determined that NASA used inappropriate methods to estimate the number of deaths that a worst-case scenario would cause if the Cassini space probe disintegrated. Dr. Sternglass warns that the actual death toll from plutonium exposure may be as high as 30 to 40 million people.
5. Karl Grossman, author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat to our Planet noted "it's no surprise that the major 'Star Wars' contractor Lockheed-Martin (which also made the rocket and nuclear generators for Cassini) is one of the biggest corporate contributors to Congressional campaigns."
6. The Price-Anderson Act of 1957 and the 1967 Outer Space Treaty make the government only liable for $8.9 billion in damage payments within the U.S. and a paltry $100 million outside our borders. (No matter how much damage it does, there is a limited amount of funds available for the victims and the cleanup.)
7. Alternative solar power could be used if NASA wanted. Monday, June 23, 1997, Dr. Gerhard Strobl stated on German national television that his company, Angewandte Solarenergie, has developed new high-efficiency solar cells for the European Space Agency (ESA) which could be ready within a few years to power deep space missions such as the Cassini mission.
Download/distribute the NoFlyBy petition from: http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/action/petition.htm
In U.S. E-mail your elected representatives urging Congressional Hearings on the planned Cassini '99 Flyby.
Visit the NoFlyBy action site at http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/index.htm
Subscribe to the NoFlyBy from: http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/alerts/subscr.htm
The NoFlyby site needs your support! Please encourage other groups to network with us, and send us your ideas to stop the Cassini Earth flyby.
Also please send a contribution to: The Traprock Peace Center (earmarked "NoFlyby"), 103A Keets Road, Deerfield, MA 01342, USA.
Obtain updated fact sheet and other pertinent information from the STOP CASSINI EARTH FLYBY ACTION SITE: http://www.nonviolence.org./noflyby/ . This website offers information and networking for Actions to Stop the Cassini Earth Flyby scheduled for August 18, 1999
Also visit the DEPLETED
URANIUM EDUCATION PROJECT, a project of the
International Action Center
39 West
14th St.
New York, New York 10011
212-633-6646
Snailmail: 39 West 14th St., #206; New York, N.Y. 10011.
pvnnyc@peoplesvideo.org