جريدة الوطن العربي سياسية – اجتماعية – اقتصادية – فنية- رياضية- مستقلة
Ibrahim ahmed
From 28 – 30 March 2022, the Bureau and members of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) gathered in Paris, France for its annual Spring Meetings for the first time since 2019.
At the final press conference, IAF President, Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund advised on the International Astronautical Federation’s 70th anniversary as an important moment to ponder on the rich Federation history. Originally founded by 10 organizations, the IAF counts today 433 members from 72 countries from all over the world and covering all space sectors and domains. Ehrenfreund remarked that this moment is especially vibrant and booming for both the industrial and public space sector, with record numbers of private investments and entrepreneurial activities. The space sector is also increasingly integrated with other economic sectors. And the IAF must evolve with this dynamic evolution of the space sector.
In addition, Prof. Ehrenfreund introduced all upcoming IAF events:
- the IAF Global Conference on Space for Emerging Countries – GLEC 2022 to take place in Quito, Ecuador from 16 – 20 May 2022,
- the 73rd International Astronautical Congress – IAC 2022 to take place from 18 – 22 September 2022 in Paris, France.
Prof. Ehrenfreund also brought in the next two congresses: IAC 2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and IAC 2024 in Milan, Italy. The IAC 2025 venue will be decided during the IAC 2022’s General Assembly. She also mentioned the great number of applications received for the next generation grants and awards.
She then paved the way to Dr. Philippe Baptiste, President of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) to invite space enthusiasts to attend the upcoming IAC 2022 in Paris, France by reminding everyone that the first IAC took place in Paris, in 1950 and this will be the fourth IAC hosted by the city of Paris. Dr. Baptiste declared that “at the end of 2022, Paris will be the heart of European and international space issues, a meeting place for the entire space community and CNES would like to make the IAC 2022 an outstanding occasion to bring together all space communities, alongside the burgeoning ecosystem of start-ups, entrepreneurs, laboratories, research scientists and manufacturers that could get involved in these space activities or benefit from them”.
The Chief Operating Officer of the French Space Agency (CNES) and IAF Vice President for Technical Activities, Dr. Lionel Suchet asserted that “the IAC 2022 is already breaking records with 4800 submitted abstracts from 97 countries and new records in terms of submissions and diversity”. He added: “CNES vows to produce the first sustainable IAC with two major points of action: ISO 20121 Responsible Event Management Certification and Carbon footprint with offset policy”.
To close the press conference, Daniela Mera, Marketing Director of the Sideralis Foundation, informed that the Global Conference on Space for Emerging Countries – GLEC 2022 is the second Conference of its kind after the successful first edition in GLEC 2019 in Marrakech, Morocco. GLEC 2022 will address various topics of interest for space developing and emerging nations and regions, with a specific focus on the benefits of space technology and applications to socio-economic development, the financial models and resourcing, and the technology and skills development. GLEC 2022 will also be the perfect occasion to dig in the beautiful and rich social and cultural treasures Ecuador has to offer.
