Contact:
Stephanie Covert
Object Management Group
+1-781-444 0404 ext. 142
pr@omg.org 

Penelope Walz
CCSDS - Public Affairs
Tel - +1 301 474 5424
Tel 2 - + 1 571 235 1625
penelope.walz@btas.com 

Space Technology Seminar to Highlight Combined Meeting
of OMG Space DTF and CCSDS
Standards in Space Software Technology
to Advance at Meeting in Athens, Greece, April 11-15, 2005

Needham, MA - March 22, 2005 - Members of the Object Management Group ( OMG; www.omg.org ) and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems ( CCSDS; www.ccsds.org ) will hold a combined meeting in Athens, Greece, from April 11 to 15, 2005. Following a combined plenary seminar on Monday afternoon, April 11, members of the two organizations will meet in both individual and combined working groups to advance Space domain standards. The goal of this and future planned co-located meetings is to produce Space standards that combine the CCSDS' space communications expertise and the OMG Space DTF with the architectural benefits conferred by both OMG's Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and Unified Modeling Language (UML), as well as its work in Real-time, Embedded, and high-assurance distributed computing. Once adopted as standards by the two organizations, Space technology will be firmly at the forefront of industry architecture.

Combined Plenary Space Standards Seminar
On Monday afternoon, April 11, members of both the OMG Space Domain Task Force (DTF) and the CCSDS will gather for a half-day seminar that surveys both groups' work in Space technology standards. The session will start with introductory remarks given by Dr. Richard Soley, OMG CEO, and Robert E. Spearing, Assistant Associate Administrator for Space Communications, Office of Space Operations, NASA. OMG members will take the floor next, with experts presenting technologies including the Unified Modeling Language (UML), Model Driven Architecture (MDA), Real-time, embedded, and high-assurance distributed infrastructures, and Space standards currently underway, as well as those planned. Then CCSDS Area Directors will present their work on Mission Operations and Information Management Services, Cross Support Services, Space Link Services, Space Internetworking Services, Spacecraft Onboard Interface Services, and Systems Engineering.

All attendees registered for either the OMG technical meeting or the CCSDS working group meetings may attend the Space Seminar. Anyone else interested in Space standards may request to register and attend by filling out the form at www.omg.org/tcguest.

CCSDS expresses Support
Dr. John D. Kelley of NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, CCSDS General Secretary and Chair, CCSDS Management Council, said, "The fundamental role of the CCSDS is to develop communications standards that meet the stringent demands of today's missions to space, and to promote the use of those standards wherever applicable. We are hopeful that ongoing cooperation with OMG will benefit emerging coordination and development, and help to extend terrestrial systems into the space domain."

OMG expresses Support
Dr. Richard Soley said, "OMG is extremely pleased to host this first combined meeting of CCSDS with our Space DTF. This puts the Space domain in the forefront of industries benefiting formally from the MDA and models expressed in UML. All of our members look forward to contributing to the cooperative work that will start at this combined meeting."

Links to Meeting Information
OMG's home page is www.omg.org. The meeting schedule and a link to registration for members appear at www.omg.org/registration, and for guests at www.omg.org/tcguest. Agendas appear at www.omg.org/agendas.
Information about the MDA is collected at www.omg.org/mda. All OMG specifications may be downloaded free of charge from www.omg.org/specifications. Information regarding CCSDS working group meetings as well as access to all CCSDS standards and protocols may be found by visiting www.CCSDS.org.

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About the CCSDS
Established in 1982 by the world's most influential space agencies, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) provides well-engineered space data handling standards to enhance interoperability and cross-support, while also reducing risk, project cost and development time.

A pioneer in international cooperation in space, the CCSDS is made up of leading space communications experts representing 28 countries, its founding member space agencies, 22 observer space agencies and over 100 private companies. CCSDS national member space agencies represent Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Russia, Canada and the United States, as well as the multi-national European Space Agency.

To date, more than 300 missions to space have chosen to fly with CCSDS protocols and the number continues to grow. For more information on participation or to access CCSDS standards and protocols free of charge, please visit http://www.CCSDS.org.

About The OMG
With well-established standards covering software from design and development, through deployment and maintenance, and extending to evolution to future platforms, the Object Management Group (OMG) supports a full-lifecycle approach to enterprise integration which maximizes ROI, the key to successful IT. OMG's Modeling standards, the basis for the MDA, include the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM). CORBA, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is OMG's standard open platform with hundreds of millions of deployments running today. Headquartered in Needham, MA, USA, the Object Management Group is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry specifications consortium. More information about OMG can be found at www.omg.org.

Note to editors: MDA, Model Driven Architecture, OMG Logo, UML and CORBA are registered trademarks, and OMG, Object Management Group, MOF, MDA Logos, Unified Modeling Language and UML logo are trademarks, of Object Management Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.