Activists intent on halting the launch of NASA's plutonium-powered Cassini mission to Saturn will go into a federal courtroom in Honolulu on Friday to argue their case.
Two groups - the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, and the Hawaii County Green Party - filed a suit earlier this week against President Clinton, NASA administrator Daniel Goldin, and presidential science adviser John Gibbons to stop the scheduled launch from Cape Canaveral early Monday morning.
The groups, part of a larger coalition of scientists and environmentalists, say the space probe's 72 pounds of plutonium fuel pose a large-scale public health risk because of the possibility of an accident during the craft's launch or when it makes a later rendezvous with Earth.
Cassini opponents argue that NASA's risk studies - which conclude there is but a minuscule chance of plutonium being dispersed on Earth during the mission - are incomplete and misleading.
