More than 500 participants joined the annual IAF Spring Meetings in Paris on 26 – 28 March 2024.
During these three days many important preparations took place, and several decisions were taken concerning the IAF’s upcoming events.
The IAF Spring Meetings began with the IDEA Day, aimed at fostering diversity within the space sector.
During the morning breakfast a lively panel, moderated by IAF Vice President for Diversity, Mishaal Ashemimry, discussed the challenges and opportunities the Next Generation faces when taking up leadership positions both within the IAF and more generally in the global space sector.
During the lunch session, IAF Executive Director Christian Feichtinger gave a very data-focused presentation on the progress made by the Federation in fostering diversity and inclusion since the establishment of the IDEA “3G” Programme in 2015.
The 75th International Astronautical Congress in Milan received a record-breaking number of nearly 7000 abstracts from 106 countries, surpassing the numbers of all previous IAC’s. This impressive figure reflects an extraordinary 30% growth since the last record of IAC 2022.
During the IAF Spring Meetings the IPC members were faced with the challenging task of selecting the best abstracts among the many submissions received this year.
Results of the selection will be available by mid-April 2024, with a target of 4000 accepted papers for oral and interactive presentation formats.
The Call for Special Sessions also reached an all-time high with 150 excellent proposals. Out of these, the IPC Steering Group accepted 19 proposals on various topics but mainly focusing on sustainability in Space and on Earth, in line with the congress theme “Responsible Space for Sustainability”.
Also, Plenaries and Highlight Lectures proposals soared to their highest level ever with 60 proposals in total for the 75th IAC in Milan.
The final selection for the Plenary Programme was approved by the IAF Bureau during the IAF Spring Meetings and will be focusing on several interesting topics including Space Sustainability, Environment and Global Cooperation.
The 75th International Astronautical Congress, taking place in Milan on 14-18 October 2024 will be offering the most comprehensive content to date with a whole range of inspiring features covering all space disciplines. As IAF President Clay Mowry stated “We aim at having this year’s IAC to be the largest gathering of space people in humankind”.
In addition to the news about the IAC, jointly with its Member, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the IAF also announced their plans for a new chapter of the IAF Global Space Exploration Conference – GLEX 2025, to take place in New Delhi, India, on 7-9 May 2025.
