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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the International Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, senior government officials from 15 countries participating in the space station program signed agreements in Washington D.C. on Jan. 29 to establish the framework of cooperation among the partners on the design, development, operation and utilization of the space station. Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott signed the 1998 Intergovernmental Agreement on Space Station Cooperation with representatives of Russia, Japan, Canada, and participating countries of the European Space Agency ESA -- Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Some of these officials then toured Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility SSPF with NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, at front, sixth from the left. They are, left to right, front to back: Hidetoshi Murayama, National Space Development Agency of Japan NASDA Louis Laurent, Embassy of France Haakon Blankenborg, Norwegian Parliament Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs His Excellency Joris Vos, ambassador of the Netherlands His Excellency Tom Vraalsen, ambassador of Norway Goldin Luigi Berlinguer, Italian minister for education, scientific, and technological research Antonio Rodota, director general, ESA Yvan Ylieff, Belgian minister of science and chairman of the ESA Ministerial Council Jacqueline Ylieff Masaaki Komatsu, Kennedy local NASDA representative and interpreter Serge Ivanets, space attache, Embassy of Russia Hiroshi Fujita, Science and Technology Agency of Japan Akira Mizutani, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Peter Grognard, science attache', Royal Embassy of Belgium Michelangelo Pipan, Italian diplomatic counselor to the minister His Excellency Gerhard Fulda, German Federal Foreign Office Jorg Feustel-Buechl, ESA director of manned space flight and microgravity A. Yakovenko, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs JoAnn Morgan, Kennedy associate director for Advanced Development and Shuttle Upgrades Steve Francois, director, International Space Station and Shuttle Processing Roy Tharpe, Boeing launch site manager Jon Cowart, ISS elements manager John Schumacher, NASA associate administrator for external relations Didier Kechemair, space advistor to the French minister for education, research, and technology Yoshinori Yoshimura, NASDA and Loren Shriver, Kennedy deputy director for launch and payload processing. Node 1 of the ISS is in the background. Photo Credit: NASA