Station launch sequence talks on tap

NASA and its international partners will meet at Kennedy Space Center next week to finalize the launch sequence for the remaining sections of the half-built outpost.

Construction of the station has been at a standstill since the February 2003 Columbia accident. It is scheduled to resume later this year after the agency flies a second test flight aimed at proving out post-Columbia safety modifications.

The European Space Agency has been lobbying NASA for an earlier-than-scheduled launch of its Columbus science laboratory, which is expected to be delivered to KSC in late May.

The core of the Japanese section of the station -- a pressurized laboratory module named Kibo, or Hope -- arrived at KSC in mid-2003 and is undergoing launch preparations in the Space Station Processing Facility.

Meeting with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will be: Virendra Jha, acting president of the Canadian Space Agency; Jean-Jacques Dordain, director-general of the European Space Agency; Keiji Tachikawa, president of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency; and Anatolli Perminov, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The space agency chiefs also will discuss plans for space station operations during the remainder of outpost construction.