International Astronautical Federation

The (IAF) is an international space advocacy organisation based in Paris, and founded in 1951 as a non-governmental organization. It has over 280 members from 64 countries across the world. They are drawn from space agencies, industry, professional associations, government organizations and learned societies. It is linked with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) with whom the IAF organises the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

Meetings[edit]

The largest and most well-known IAF event is the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which takes place annually in September or October. The IAC features high-level plenaries and highlight lectures, specialised young professionals' and students events, and the Global Networking Forum.

The IAF also organises the 'Global Conferences' series, with the Global Lunar Exploration Conference (GLUC 2010) in Beijing, the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2012) in Washington DC, Global Space Applications Conference (GLAC 2014) in Paris, and the upcoming Global Space Innovation Conference (GLIC 2015) in Munich.

Working in close cooperation with the United Nations, the IAF also organises the Space Workshop for Developing Nations. With the Committee on Space Research and the International Institute of Space Law, the IAF also conducts an annual survey of Highlights in Space for the United Nations.

Every year at the International Astronautical Congress, awards are given out: The main awards are the IAF World Space Award, last year presented to Voyager project scientist Edward C. Stone, the Allan D. Emil Memorial Award, the Franck J. Malina Astronautics Medal and the Luigi G. Napolitano Award. The 65th IAC in Toronto, Canada, took place 27 September - 3 October 2014 with the theme "The World Needs Space".

Publications[edit]

The IAF publishes proceedings from its meeting electronically, along with studies undertaken by IAF committees, and other reports.