NASA Announces Conference on the American Space Program for the 21st Century

WASHINGTON, April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold a conference following President Obama's remarks about the bold new course the administration is charting for NASA and the future of U.S. leadership in human spaceflight on Thursday, April 15, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

A diverse group of senior officials, space leaders, academic experts, industry leaders and others who have specific expertise or interests related to the topics of discussion will attend the conference and participate in four concurrent sessions on different aspects of the President's new direction for NASA.

Following the President's remarks, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will host a conference overview, beginning at 3:45 p.m. EDT, with Norm Augustine, chair, Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee and John Holdren, assistant to the President for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The conference overview and the four concurrent conference sessions, beginning at 4:25 p.m., will take place in both the Operations and Checkout Building and in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will host a conference wrap-up with the four panel moderators at 5:40 p.m. in the visitor complex's Astronaut Encounter Theater.

Conference Session Topics:

• Increasing Access to and Utilization of the International Space Station
• Jumpstarting the New Technologies to Take Us Beyond
• Expanding our Reach into the Solar System
• Harnessing Space to Expand Economic Opportunity

The President's remarks and all four conference sessions will be streamed live on the agency's Web site at:

http://www.nasa.gov

The conference overview and wrap-up are open to pre-credentialed media and also will be available on the agency's Web site.

Pre-credentialed media wishing to pre-position live trucks at the Visitor Complex should contact Andrea Farmer at 321-449-4318.

SOURCE NASA