A presidential "space summit" in Florida next week will give NASA and the administration a chance to discuss, and explain to the public, the space agency's post-shuttle shift to commercial rockets and technology development, the administrator said Thursday.

Few details about the president's April 15 visit to Florida's Space Coast have been revealed, including where the meetings will be held. But NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Thursday he hopes the summit will clear the air and give the president "the opportunity to continue the conversation that he has been having with members of Congress."

"As the plan is laid out right now, I think I can share that he actually plans to have some private moments with members who will be there for the conference, he then plans to deliver a major space policy speech and, hopefully, convince everybody ... that he's dedicated to exploration and human space flight.

"And then, as it's planned right now, there will be several round table or panel discussions, breakouts on a number of topics that have to do with the programs in the proposed budget so that we can get some feedback from people who attend the conference and we have an opportunity for learned people to share their insights."

The public portions of the invitation-only meetings will be carried live on NASA's satellite television channel and open to media coverage.

"I'm not the writer of the guest list, but there will be members of Congress invited because ... none of this happens unless Congress approves the budget," Bolden said. "So it's very important that they be involved in the discussion and the deliberation. Members of the press will be there, because it's only through you that we can tell our story."

Other invited guests will include "people involved in future concepts, whether they're commercial spaceflight developers, scientists, engineers, representatives from academia," Bolden said. "We're attempting to get a broad cross section of people who can participate and the breakout of the four, I think, different groups will represent distinctly different areas so we don't get a lot of overlap. We try to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time."