UNISPACE III to stage:

ASTRONAUT/COSMONAUT EVENT TO CELEBRATE
30TH ANNIVERSARY OF MOON LANDING

To look back on pioneering years of space. To illustrate role of humans in space.

VIENNA, 15 July (UN Information Service) -- The Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration andPeaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Moon Landingwith a special gathering of astronauts and cosmonauts from ten different countries entitled,

'A Celebration of Humans in Space'.

Chaired by Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian to have traveled into space, and Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diazfrom the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the event will feature a look back on thepioneering years of space exploration, including the historic Moon Landing of 20 July, 1969. Other participatingastronauts and cosmonauts include: Claudie Andre-Deshays (France), Pedro Duque (Spain), Chris Hadfield(Canada), Alexey Leonov (Russia), Ulf Merbold (Germany), Chiaki Mukai (Japan), Dumitru Dorin Prunariu(Rumania) and Yury Romanenko (Russia).

In addition to a retrospective on the pioneering years of space travel, the panel of astronauts and cosmonautswill illustrate the role of humans in space. They will show how experiments conducted by astronauts andcosmonauts in the areas of life sciences, remote sensing, material sciences and telecommunications, havecontributed to the betterment of life for all mankind.

The panel will also discuss the challenges of working side by side in space and the contribution of cosmonautsand astronauts to international cooperation. They will particularly focus attention on the International SpaceStation (ISS), the largest space venture yet. This huge technological endeavour, involving 14 countries, willusher in a new era of space exploration and understanding for the new millennium.

The event is organized with the support of the American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA), the NationalAeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian SpaceAgency (CSA), the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (France), DLR (Germany), The National SpaceDevelopment Agency of Japan (NASDA), The Rumanian Space Agency (ROSA), the Russian Space Agency(RKA), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) and the Boeing Company.

A press Conference, at which the astronauts will attend, will take place on the same day at: