Advertisement

30 Members of Congress Urge Delay of ‘Star Wars’ Laser Test

Share
Froma Times Staff Writer

Thirty members of Congress have asked Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger to postpone a $30-million test of an X-ray laser until technical problems associated with the experiment have been corrected.

The top-secret experiment, code-named Goldstone, is intended to test a potential element of the “Star Wars” program, officially the Strategic Defense Initiative, in which the United States is seeking to develop a missile defense system to be based in space.

Last month, however, The Times reported that experts at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., which is to conduct the test, and scientists at another government weapons lab have said that a design error in a key measuring device used in past tests has led to false readings.

Advertisement

In a letter to the defense secretary Friday, Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Bill Green (R-N. Y.) and 28 other members of Congress said: “We are disturbed that at this time of skyrocketing deficits and cutbacks in defense spending, money is being wasted in a test that does not provide accurate data.”

They asked that the experiment be delayed until “technical problems have been corrected.”

Col. Lee DeLorme, a spokesman for the Strategic Defense Initiative Office, said: “That particular program is going forward, and we are making progress with it.”

Livermore scientists are trying to turn the power of a nuclear explosion into X-ray lasers. If the laser light can be focused into a sufficiently bright beam, it might be lethal enough to destroy satellites or missiles in space.

The test is scheduled to take place at the Nevada nuclear testing site.

Advertisement