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| Special Section: The Cassini Mission |
Toxic rocket fuel, not plutonium, has meteorologists worried
October 12, 1997
Web posted at: 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 GMT)CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- It's not the 72 pounds of highly radioactive plutonium that has Air Force meteorologists worried about Monday's launch of a Titan rocket with the Cassini spacecraft.
It's the 1.85 million pounds of toxic rocket fuel.
Paul Rosati, an Air Force engineer who specializes in toxic risk, said Saturday that wind direction and speed, humidity and temperature will be monitored rigorously before the go-ahead is given for the launch of the Titan 4-B, the country's most powerful unmanned rocket.
A L S O :
Final countdown to Cassini liftoff is on
If the wind was blowing toward land and the rocket exploded, the hydrazine, nitrogen tetroxide and hydrogen chloride fumes could sicken residents.
"Those are the toxics that we are protecting the public from," Rosati said.
The shielded plutonium, needed to power Cassini on its 11-year mission to explore Saturn, is in the form of hardened ceramic pellets and therefore could not be inhaled in the event of a rocket explosion, said NASA and Energy Department officials. If any plutonium is released in an accident, it would shatter into chunks, they said.
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Special Section: The Cassini Mission Related stories:
- Final countdown to Cassini liftoff is on - October 12, 1997
- Federal judge turns down bid to stop Cassini - October 11, 1997
- Much ado about Cassini's plutonium - October 10, 1997
- Dozens arrested in protest of plutonium-fueled space mission - October 4, 1997
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