Allard Beutel Headquarters, Washington August 1, 2003 (Phone: 202/358-4769) Dave Drachlis Stafford-Covey Task Group, Houston (Phone: 256/544-6538) Bruce Buckingham Kennedy Space Center, Fla. (Phone: 321/867-2468) NOTE TO EDITORS: N03-078 STAFFORD-COVEY TASK GROUP HOLDS FIRST PUBLIC MEETING The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group (SCTG) will hold its first public meeting at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 7, at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Task Group Co-chairman Richard O. Covey will be available to answer news media questions immediately following the meeting. The public meeting and media availability will be in the Debus Conference Facility at the KSC Visitor Center. Media desiring to cover the meeting should contact Bruce Buckingham, KSC Public Affairs, at 321/867-2468. During their three-day KSC visit, the Task Group will conduct organizational activities, tour Space Shuttle facilities, and receive briefings on a variety of Shuttle-related topics. The Task Group was chartered by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe to perform an independent assessment of NASA's implementation of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's final recommendations. The group is co-chaired by Covey, who is a former Space Shuttle commander, and retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General, and Apollo commander, Thomas P. Stafford. Additional information about the Task Group is available in the Return to Flight section of the NASA Web site home page: <http://www.nasa.gov/news/highlights/r2f_task_group_bios.html> -end- ------------------------------------------------------------- For automatic email subscriptions to this KSC originated press releases, send an Internet electronic mail message to mailto:ksc-news_release-subscribe@kscnews.ksc.nasa.gov. With no subject or message. The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription. To remove your name from the list at any time, send an email addressed to mailto:ksc-news_release-unsubscribe@kscnews.ksc.nasa.gov . With no subject or message. or you can (un)subscribe on the World Wide Web at: http://kscnews.ksc.nasa.gov/ Status reports and other NASA publications are available on the World Wide Web at: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/kscpao.htm .