“Countdown to the Millennium” is a phrase that is bound to become a familiar one in the coming months,
but perhaps nowhere is the dawn of a new age being felt more strongly than in the space industry. Which
is why we chose this as our theme for the 36th annual Space Congress.
As we approach the millennium, space is opening up to us in a myriad of ways we could not have imagined
just a few years ago. We’ve successfully launched the first components of the International Space Station,
the most ambitious program in the history of manned space flight. Ground has been broken at the Cape
for facilities to accommodate the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles. The next two years
will see the debut of a host of commercially driven Reuseable Launch Vehicles and EELV. Space
Congress will address many of these monumental projects and their effects on the commercial, military,
scientific, and educational arenas.
Among the topics that will be addressed through panel and paper sessions will be the push to Mars and
beyond. The ambitious launches of Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter will demonstrate our
ability to reach a new plateau of unmanned planetary exploration. International cooperation in human
space flight will also be discussed in a number of sessions.
