THE END

Your rocket malfunctioned during lift-off and never made it into space. Of course, there are no survivors.

What's worse, you've just scattered a vaporized nuclear reactor core in the earth's atmosphere. Thousands, if not millions, of earthlings will eventually die as a result of exposure to radiation.

Impossible? NO.
Unlikely? Perhaps, but it has happened before:

• On November 17, 1996, the Mars 96 space probe malfunctioned and fell to Earth with a half-pound of plutonium on board.
• On January 24, 1978, the Cosmos 954 scattered nuclear debris over the Canadian tundra.
• etc.

In October of 1997 NASA will send the largest plutonium payload ever (72.3 pounds) furiously hurtling through the atmosphere into space aboard the spacecraft CASSINI.

Accidents will happen again. And it will be much more serious if we go ahead with plans to develop nuclear powered spacecraft (and we will).

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Info on Nuclear Powered Spacecraft:
• Risking the World: Nuclear Proliferation in Space Covert Action Quarterly, issue no. 57, Summer 1996
• STOP CASSINI: The Plutonium Probe
  Cassini: An In-Depth Look by Russell D. Hoffman
• Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power In Space European Visit
• NUCLEARIZATION AND MILITARIZATION OF SPACE
  • FCPJ : Articles on space/plutonium/weaponization of space - and useful Internet links
• Space Nukes: Imminent Fact, Not Far-Fetched Fantasy
• Treaty Needed to Counter Satellite Reactor Threat -gives some examples of nuclear-powered spacecraft failures.
• NUCLEAR POWERED SATELLITE ACCIDENTS from RADNET
• Nuclear Powered Space Missions - Past and Future by Regina Hagen 11/8/98
  "Currently, hundreds of kilograms plutonium and almost a metric ton of uranium circle the Earth on board of U.S. and Soviet spacecrafts - many of them on orbits which are all but safe. It is hoped, that the list in Chapter 0, 3 Past Missions – a Chronology creates an awareness of just how huge these amounts are and how many accidents occurred. On an average, there is one accident for each seven space missions - this is also true for nuclear powered space missions."

Info on the Mars 96 space probe, which fell to earth Nov. 17, 1996:
• From the Folks Who Brought You Chernobyl: A Plutonium-Powered Russian Space Probe Falls to Earth by Russell D. Hoffman
• Associated Press article 12/13/96
• The Official Mars 96 Project Homepage
• Media Ignores Real Fate of Failed Russian Probe?: by Kristi Coale and James Glave
• Space Probe Explodes, Plutonium Missing Covert Action Qurterly, issue no. 60, Spring 1997

Some information about Nuclear Materials in Space from our friendly neighborhood federal government agencies:
• The DOE and Risks of Future Nuclear-Powered Space Missions
• Nuclear Rocket Page
• Starship Designs
  
  • Electric (Nuclear) Propulsion
    • T.A.U.: Thousand Astronomical Unit Probe
  • Fission Rockets
    • Orion: Nuclear Pulse Rocket
  • Fusion Engines
    • Daedalus
    • Longshot
    • Ramjets
    • RAIRs
• General Propulsion
  • Orion: ". . . manned spacecraft propelled by the shock waves made by nuclear bombs."
  • Project Orion: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth by Michael Flora
    • same article as above from Jeff B.'s Atomic Bomb Information page
• Official CASSINI spacecraft pages, set to take-off in October of 1997 carrying 72.3 lbs. Pu:
  • Spacecraft Power for Cassini
  • Cassini: Voyage to Saturn
    • Spacecraft
  • What's in an RTG? (That's short for RadioIsotope Thermoelectric Generator, i.e. a hunk of plutonium that generates a small current of electricity)
• Topaz II: a Russian reactor under consideration for US space propulsion.

Are You Willing to
Try Your Luck Again?