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(meteorobs) Space Station

Hope ya'll forgive the non-meteor post, but with an international
subscriber list, thought I would post the following international space
news....

-Mark Davis

................................................................
Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC                    January 29, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1979)

Susan Povenmire
U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC
(Phone:  202/647-3486)

RELEASE: 98-17

SPACE STATION AGREEMENTS TO BE SIGNED IN WASHINGTON

          Today marks an important milestone for the International 
Space Station as senior government officials from 15 countries 
meet in Washington to sign agreements to establish the framework 
for cooperation among the partners on the design, development, 
operation and utilization of the Space Station.

          Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott will sign the 
1998 Intergovernmental Agreement on Space Station Cooperation, 
along with representatives of Russia, Japan, Canada and 
participating countries of the European Space Agency (Belgium, 
Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, 
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).  The signing will be 
held at the U.S. State Department's Dean Acheson auditorium at 4 
p.m. EST.

          Three bilateral memoranda of understanding also will be 
signed by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin separately with his 
counterparts: Russian Space Agency General Director Yuri Koptev, 
ESA Director General Antonio Rodota and Canadian Space Agency 
President William (Mac) Evans.  The memorandum of understanding 
between NASA and the government of Japan will be signed at a later 
date.

          Today's new agreements supersede previous Space Station 
agreements among the U.S., Europe, Japan and Canada signed in 
1988.  These new agreements reflect changes to the Space Station 
program resulting from significant Russian participation in the 
program and program design changes undertaken by the original 
partnership in 1993.

          Led by the U.S., the International Space Station will be 
the largest, most complex international cooperative science and 
engineering program ever attempted.  Taking advantage of the 
technical expertise from participating countries, the 
International Space Station will bring together scientists, 
engineers and researchers from around the globe to assemble a 
premier research facility in orbit.  

          Beginning in June 1998, with the launch of the first 
Space Station element, the partnership will ultimately assemble 
more than 100 components in low Earth orbit over the next five 
years, using approximately 45 assembly flights.  When completed, 
the Station will provide access for researchers around the world 
to permanent, state-of-the-art laboratories in weightlessness. 

          As currently envisioned, the International Space Station 
will support a crew of up to seven and include five complete 
pressurized laboratories and attached external sites for research.  
The Station will provide a focal point for space operations among 
the partners well into the next century, and will serve as a 
stepping-stone for human exploration of the solar system.  On the 
football-field-sized station, permanent crews will perform long-
duration research in a variety of scientific disciplines advancing 
the world's understanding of life sciences, earth sciences and 
materials processing, while fostering commercial research 
activities in space.

                         - end -