Appeals Court Permits Shuttle Launching Today

An appeals court Monday dismissed a last-ditch attempt by environmentalists to stop today’s launching of the shuttle Atlantis, setting the stage for a flight to fire the nuclear-powered Galileo probe to Jupiter.

Eight anti-nuclear activists were arrested Monday in a symbolic protest at the Kennedy Space Center. But, with beefed-up security teams on guard against more serious infiltration attempts, Atlantis’ countdown ticked smoothly toward blastoff at 9:57 a.m. PDT today, five days late because of work to replace a faulty main engine computer.

“The bottom line . . . is that we think we have an excellent chance of getting airborne . . . ,” NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly said. “The vehicle’s in good shape; the crew’s ready to go fly, and the weather looks like we’ll have a good chance of getting airborne.”

Late Monday, technicians detected a problem with a “black box” that collects speed and other data for the shuttle’s navigation system and worked to replace the cockpit device, but no delay in the launching was expected, NASA spokeswoman Lisa Malone said.

Rocket crews rolled a giant rotating service gantry away from Atlantis, exposing the 4.5-million-pound spaceship to set the stage for fuel loading early today.

Commander Donald Williams, 47, co-pilot Michael McCulley, 46, flight engineer Franklin Chang-Diaz, 39, Shannon Lucid, 46, and Ellen Baker, 36, plan to spend five days in orbit before landing at 12:42 p.m. PDT Sunday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Lucid and Baker were scheduled to deploy the space probe from Atlantis’s 60-foot payload bay.

The $1.4-billion Galileo probe, the most sophisticated interplanetary craft ever built, has generated controversy because it is equipped with two atomic power packs loaded with 48 pounds of radioactive plutonium 238 dioxide. NASA contends that the power packs would survive a Challenger-class disaster and most other accidents intact.

Anti-nuclear activists charge that Galileo is too risky to launch, that a cloud of deadly radiation could be released in a disaster. But a federal judge last week refused to block the flight, and an appeals court in Washington Monday agreed with that decision.

At the Kennedy Space Center, eight demonstrators were arrested when they trespassed at a guard gate in a symbolic protest. NASA is spending an extra $100,000 to bolster security around the launching pad. But, although gun-toting NASA guards were prepared for more activity, organizers said that no one would try to infiltrate the launching zone today.

“We’re urging people not to be within 25 miles of the launch pad,” said Bruce Gagnon of the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice.