Now, some of Nostradamus' words from over 400 years ago:"In the year 1999, and seven months from the sky will come the great King ofTerror. He will bring to life the great King of the Mongols. Before and after war reigns happily. (note: this was written before the Gregorian calendar shifted; please interpret seven months as "eight", i.e., August 1999) "'This will be preceded by the eclipse of the sun, more obscure and tenebrous than has ever been since the creation of the world, except that eclipse after the death and passion of Jesus Christ. "From the Sky will come the Great King of Terror..."

Cassini is an unmanned NASA deep space probe launched back in October, 1997 with an ultimate destination of reaching Saturn in 2005 (NASA's priciest space project yet; $2-3 billion invested.) Currently, Cassini is racing back towards Earth at 43,000 miles per hour with the hopes of picking up speed in an orbital flyby around our planet. Preceded by the eclipse of the Sun by one week, Cassini arrives 400 miles above the Earth's atmosphere on August 18, 1999, to pick up speed on its way out to Saturn. The real danger of this Earth flyby is that Cassini is traveling with a fuel load of 72 pounds of Plutonium Dioxide, NASA's idea of a new propulsion source. What were they thinking?! The slightest malfunction, miscalculation, or random collision with space debris could result in the probe, and its deadly plutonium, reentering earth's atmosphere and incinerating its deadly cargo. NASA claims the chance of such an accident resulting in a plutonium release is one in a million. Many do not agree with that assessment.

The isotope of plutonium used in Cassini, Pu-238, is especially dangerous because of its rapid rate of radioactive decay. It has a very short half-life(87.75 years) which means it emits radiation (mainly alpha particles) at a very high rate. Although it's true that alpha particles can be stopped by a piece of paper, when even a tiny microscopic particle of Plutonium 238 is inhaled, the localized radiation (the radiation to nearby cells) can cause lung cancer and other illnesses. Plutonium Dioxide in the environment will cause death, illness, and genetic mutations for centuries to all life forms. For more Cassini data, go online to:http://www.animatedsoftwarecom/cassini/index.htm

CREDIT: by EcoNews Service (C) 1999 Antero AlliRead; ParaNormal News Network (P3N)

Robert Dinse writes: This is in response to the CAUS posting about Cassini. The Plutonium Dioxide is NOT a propulsion source, it is a source ofelectrical energy to power the crafts scientific instruments, navigation, andcommunications equipment. It's a very simple concept really, heat from thenatural decay of PL-238 is used to heat a thermocouple, a junction of twodissimilar metals, to generate electricity. It's a fairly reliable way ofgenerating electricity in the long term because there are no moving partsrequired. In deep space, making electricity from sunlight is difficult since you areso far from the sun the light is week. RTG's are about the only viablealternative we have at present. The science is well worth doing. Is there any reason to believe this eclipse will be "more obscure andtenebrous" than any other ellipse? Especially any since the death of Christ? Second, even worst case scenarios wouldn't qualify Cassini as the "King ofTerror." Actually, there is a rather narrow range of angles that might result inthe "incineration" of this cargo. But beyond that, plutonium powered RTG'shave been used in various spy and military satellites and reentered theatmosphere numerous times. The RTG's operate at very high temperatures under normal conditions, and also need to be fairly heavily shielded to avoid interfering with space craft electronics, and as a consequence, usually when they have reentered, they have done so largely intact, rather than vaporizing in the atmosphere. But even assuming they vaporize in the atmosphere, 72lbs of plutonium is pretty trivial compared to all of the radioactive material that has alreadybeen dumped into the atmosphere as the result of above ground nuclear testing,the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, andother sources. 3/4th's of the earth's surface is covered with water, and a large percentage of the land is not significantly populated. The odds, if something goes wrong and it does re-enter the atmosphere, and at the right angle to burnup, the odds of it happening over a populated area are small.If this accident occurred, it would be a very small increase in anexisting background. Where the atomic tests didn't yield any benefit to mankind except for more efficient ways of exterminating ourselves, Cassini will bring back valuable information about Saturn and it's moons. The moons of Saturn and Jupiter are the most likely place in this solar system for life to exist outside of earth, they are worthy of investigation even if that entails a very slight risk.

Credit: CAUS Members Speakout; CAUS UPDATES June 12, 1999; Robert Dinse reports.

In response to the Cassini debate, I would like to add that my research will show that any object entering the earth's atmosphere must enter at a specific flight-path upon reentry to avoid being incinerated during its trip through the atmosphere In other words, the flight path would have to be exactly 6.2-degrees to the horizon. The likelyhood of Cassini doing this would be like splitting a hair with a razor blade at 50 feet. This is difficult enough to achieve with space vehicles under intelligent control. The possibility exists that some fissionable material would remain, but the damage would be negligable. The question is how long can we continue to endanger our planet with this nuclear "Sword of Damocles?" -Christopher Montgomery (Director)UFORC