The Trust's launch was in Cardiff in March 1999. ISSET arranged for George Abbey (Director of Johnson Space Centre, the home of mission control and the astronaut training centre), Astronaut and Assistant Director, Dr Bonnie Dunbar and Pilot Cosmonaut General Yuri Glazkov (Director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Star City, Moscow) to conduct a series of events to launch the charity.

( From the left, Lyubov Glazkova, former world champion aerobatics pilot; George Abbey, Director of Johnson Space Center, Houston; General Yuri Glazkov, Cosmonaut and Deputy Director of Y.A. Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre, Star City, Moscow, Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, Astronaut and Deputy Director of Johnson Space Center; Katya Glazkov; and Christopher Barber )

The week of events included four videoconferences from schools and businesses in Wales firstly to schools in USA, secondly to schools around Britain and thirdly with Welsh Canadian Astronaut Dafydd Rhys Williams in Mission Control, Houston. The events also featured a banquet at Cardiff Castle for educationalist and business representatives, a teachers conference for teachers from all parts of the British Isles, visits to secondary schools, primary schools and a school for deaf and autistic children and the opening of new buildings at Stanwell School in Penarth. This latter event featured a visual and audio link with the cosmonauts on the MIR orbital station above the earth.

Whilst at Johnson Space Centre in July Astronaut, Dr Bonnie Dunbar also took part in the Trust's videoconference with Cornish and Devonian students at Devonport Dockyard.

Pages: • What is ISSET? • History of ISSET • History of ISSET, Part 2 • The Future of ISSET