Thomas Young, chairman of the independent blue-ribbon
task force charged with examining the budget and management
challenges facing the International Space Station, will meet
with reporters in Washington to discuss his efforts.

Young led the Independent Management and Cost Evaluation
(IMCE) Task Force formed in July by the Office of Management
and Budget and the NASA Advisory Council to look at the
space station project.

The press conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. EST on Friday,
Nov. 2, in the main auditorium of NASA Headquarters, 300 E
Street, SW, Washington, D.C., 20546. The event will be
carried live on NASA Television with question-and-answer
capability from participating NASA field centers.

Young, a former president and Chief Operations Officer at
Martin Marietta Corp., managed numerous complex and
technically challenging programs for government as well as
private industry. He recently led the Mars Program
Independent Assessment Team which reviewed NASA’s approach to
robotic exploration.

Copies of the IMCE report will be available at the press
conference and can be found on the Internet after 2 p.m. EST
at:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/reports/2001/imce.pdf

NASA Television is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85
degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a
frequency of 3880 MHz and audio of 6.8 MHz.

The IMCE, made up of a diverse team of world-renowned
experts, including two Nobel laureates, presents its findings
to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Tuesday, Nov. 6. That
meeting is open to the public and will be held from 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m. EST in room 9H40 at NASA Headquarters.

Due to the important nature of the report, the NAC decided to
receive the IMCE’s findings before its regularly scheduled
meeting in December. The NAC wanted to discuss the IMCE
findings as soon as possible, to give the Agency time to
incorporate its recommendations into the 2003 fiscal year
budget request, and to facilitate continued congressional
consideration of funding issues regarding the space station
project.

Because increased security measures are in place at NASA
Headquarters, please contact Kathy Dakon at 202/358-0732 if
you plan to attend the meeting of the NASA Advisory Council.
Do not contact Dakon about the Nov. 2 press conference.