The European Space Agency says the 57th annual International Astronautical Congress will be Oct. 2-6 in Valencia, Spain.

More than 1,400 papers have been selected to be presented at this year's event during its 128 lecture and 47 interactive "poster" sessions. Approximately 2,500 delegates are expected to attend.

The opening ceremony will take place at the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofia, in Valencia's City of Arts and Science. ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain is to be one of the opening session's speakers.

The ESA said it will also sponsor an exhibition during the meeting featuring models of current planetary missions such as Mars Express, Venus Express, Smart-1, and Huygens, which landed on Saturn's moon Titan last year.

The Galileo satellite navigation system, European telecommunications satellites, meteorology satellites and the new Sentinel spacecraft will also be part of the exhibit, as will several ESA and Soyuz launchers.

The exhibition will be open daily to the general public during the meeting.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International