(15 Oct 1997) English/Nat
A group of protestors took a last stand against the launch on Tuesday, outside NASA headquarters in New York.
The controversial probe has angered environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists alike.
And several dozen activists were gathered outside the NASA headquarters on Tuesday, chanting anti-nuclear slogans.
Cassini is the largest, most expensive interplanetary probe ever assembled by NASA.
It also contains the most plutonium ever loaded onto a spacecraft
- 72 pounds (32.7 kilos) - to power it.
NASA's biggest and most costly interplanetary explorer promises the best look yet at Saturn's rings and moons.
The two-storey robotic spacecraft is expected to orbit Saturn 74 times and sweep past Titan, its largest moon, 45 times.
It will also release a probe to land on Titan, another momentous first.
But despite reassurance from NASA over safety precautions, opponents of the probe fear an accident aboard would cause plutonium particles to infiltrate the air and pose a potentially lethal threat to humans.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well NASA is assuring us there are no safety problems. The only way they can assure us of that is to take the plutonium off the ship and use solar power. How can you assure us of that without doing it. If you have the ... murderous ingredients there the possibility is there for a disaster."
SUPER CAPTION: Al Sharpton, activist and former mayoral candidate
Hollywood actor and anti-nuclear activist Martin Sheen joined Tuesday's protest.
He said the launch was an example of a arrogance ignoring the will of the people.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Tomorrow's launch is another example of a government agency expressing its arrogance against the people's will, and as always, arrogance is ignorance matured. That's what we're faced with here."
SUPER CAPTION: Martin Sheen, actor and activist
Cassini's launch had been delayed by 48 hours due to adverse weather conditions and a technical hitch.
Take-off took place at 0843 G-M-T on Wednesday, from Cape Canaveral.
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