Dwayne Brown/Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington                       Oct. 30, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-1726/1600)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N01-61

REVISED - INDEPENDENT SPACE STATION TASK FORCE 
READY TO PRESENT REPORT TO NASA ADVISORY COUNCIL

     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.

                          -end-