Because every member of the Congress and Senate plus the President and Vice President were personally handed petitions asking them to have public hearings and to please stop this insanity. And if this happens, there won't be anything left of NASA either except for a dirty smudge on the pages of history. Many point to how much all this is costing in tax revenues, who benefits from those large and long term revenues, and arguing the reason is neither good science or defense, but Corporate welfare in a very big way. Many in the scientific community who are not on the government pay roll are pointing out precisely how dangerous launching plutonium 238 can be to life on earth should any one of these launches fail, either at launch or in the upper atmosphere. Public awareness of plans and activities held in secrecy is the last thing NASA wants.
Functional democracy begins with free and open discourse.
The following spontaneous and unpolished material is presented in the interests of stimulating discussion on the issue of plutonium launching. The October 6 Cassini launch is a point of no return. With Cassini's launching the U.S. empire lays the final seeds of its own undoing. Any fourth grader could see we're heading for horrific times if they were given the facts of what all is going on now. That's the key.