On 23 January, ESA's Headquarters in Paris will host an 'ISS Heads of Agency meeting' at which Heads of space agencies involved in the International Space Station programme (ESA for Europe, NASA for the USA, CSA for Canada, JAXA for Japan and Roskosmos for Russia) will take stock of the status of the ISS and look at the follow-on activities.

Significant progress has been made since the endorsement of the ISS configuration and assembly sequence in January 2006, and the Partners will together continue the challenging work on ISS assembly, operations and utilisation. At this meeting, each Partner will provide an update on the programme status and planning.

The ISS Partners will also touch on possible scenarios for future exploration activities, aiming at stimulating international cooperation while taking into account the lessons learned from the fruitful ISS partnership.

A short press briefing will take place immediately after the meeting ends at 18:00 hrs. Media representatives wishing to attend are invited to fill in the attached accreditation form. The audio of the press briefing will also be available on the ESA web portal (http://www.esa.int) later that evening.  

For further information, please contact:

Franco Bonacina
Head of Media Relations Office and DG’s spokesperson
Tel: + 33(0)1. 53.69.71.55