From a Kerry speech on 9/4/96:

"As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, I have fought, along with the distinguished Senator from South Carolina [Mr.

Hollings] and other Senators, to secure funding for many important scientific programs. Many of these programs have been shortchanged in order to help pay for the costs associated with the development of the space station. Allowing this extraordinary large science program to receive funding at the expense of these other so-called small science programs--which I believe will produce more products and more valuable products--is unacceptable. These small programs are creating thousands of high wage technology jobs at a fraction of the cost associated with the space station.

In the space program itself, the enormous level of funding consumed by the space station is crowding out much smaller programs for satellites and unmanned space probes, which most experts consider more cost-effective than manned missions.

These activities are aimed at expanding our understanding of the Sun, the solar system, and the universe beyond. The specific programs in this category include the `new millennium,' a program to build robotic spacecraft one-tenth the size and cost of satellites; the Cassini mission to Saturn, scheduled for launch in 1997; continuation of the Discovery missions, each of which costs less than $150 million, can be launched within 3 years of the start of its development, and is used by NASA to find ways to develop smaller, cheaper, faster, better planetary spacecraft; and the Mars surveyor program which funds a series of small missions to resume the detailed exploration of Mars after the loss of the Mars Observer mission in 1993.

Funding for projects in this area will be approximately $1.86 billion in fiscal year 1997 which represents a 9-percent reduction from last year. The academic research establishment is concerned that the space station appears to be draining funds from these other space projects."

source: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r104:2:./temp/~r104eAibZq:e46:

Second data point: an anti-Cassini website claims Kerry supported delaying Cassini launch to study safety concerns: "Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has also come out for postponement of Cassini for Congressional investigation."

http://www.americanreview.us/cass2.htm. No documentation was provided.

It's possible Kerry supported Cassini, pending resolution of any safety concerns, and was willing to see it delayed if necessary (the annoying nuanced view thing that many people hate). As I believe has been discussed here before, he may have supported delay as an "easy" position, knowing that it would not be adopted by NASA.

I'm aware of an alleged vote to delay Cassini supported by Boxer and Kerry, but couldn't find it.