NATION : Atlantis’ Countdown Resumes for Tuesday Morning Launch
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A countdown suspended for five days by a failed engine computer resumed without a hitch today and a federal appeals court removed a legal obstacle to Tuesday morning’s launch of space shuttle Atlantis.
Hours after the countdown started up, an appeals court in Washington dismissed environmentalists’ request to stop the launch because of the nuclear-powered Galileo spaceship that will be aboard. The anti-nuclear activists, who had appealed a lower court’s rejection of their request, fear that a Challenger-style accident could poison the atmosphere with plutonium from Galileo’s power pack.
But the three-judge appeals panel, headed by chief judge Patricia Wald, said last week’s order by U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch was not appealable.
More than 30 activists marched this morning on a Kennedy Space Center gate about 10 miles from the launch pad. Eight of them were arrested on trespassing charges after they walked through a line of security guards at the gate.
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