LAUNCH OF WORLD SPACE WEEK TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS, 4 OCTOBER

An event to launch the first World Space Week observed this year from 4 to 10 October, will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, 4 October 2000, in Conference Room 4. The programme will highlight opportunities presented by space technology for addressing such issues as security, health, education and access to information in developing countries.

A message from Secretary-General Kofi Annan for World Space Week will be delivered by Kensaku Hogen, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. Mazlan Othman, Director, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, will give an opening address. There will also be a videotaped message by noted science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose works include the novel which was the basis for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Lou Dobbs, Chief Executive Officer, SPACE.com, and former anchor, Moneyline News Hour (CNN) and Business Unusual (CNNfn), will moderate a panel of space explorers on the topic, "Living in Space". Panellists include astronauts/cosmonauts Rakesh Sharma (India), Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu (Romania), Franklin Chang-Diaz (United States) and Jean-Fran�ois Clervoy (European Space Agency).

Guo Baozhu, Vice Administrator, China National Space Administration, will give a presentation on "Space Technology in a Developing Country", highlighting space technology being used to improve agriculture and disaster management in China. Martin Barber, Chief, Policy Development and Advocacy Branch, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will speak on "Space for Humanitarian Relief".

At 12:30 p.m., there will be a Space Conference for Students moderated by Bill Nye, host and head writer of the television show, Disney Presents Bill Nye the Science Guy. Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz will participate, along with student journalists.

The programme is being co-sponsored by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the United Nations Department of Public Information, in cooperation with the Planetary Society, a non-governmental organization, founded in 1980 by United States scientists Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman, to encourage exploration of our solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life.

The observance of World Space Week was mandated by General Assembly Resolution 54/68 of 6 December 1999, as a "yearly celebration at the international level of the contribution that space science and technology can make to the

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betterment of the human condition". Subsequently, the Secretary-General, in note verbale OOSA/2000.5, requested that Member States inform their relevant bodies, agencies and institutions, and encouraged them to organize events during the period.

For more information, please contact (212) 963-6923 or (212) 963-7346; for media accreditation, (212) 963-6934.

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