A delegation of International Astronautical Federation (IAF) led by Mr Christian Feichtinger, Executive Director, IAF, met the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, here today. Ms Elena Feichtinger, Project Manager and Special Advisor, IAF was also present. Mr S Somanathan, Distinguished Scientist and Director VSSC, ISRO, Mr R. Umamaheswaran, Scientist Secretary, ISRO, Dr D Gowrishankar, Director, International Cooperation ISRO HQ and Ms. U Sreerekha, Associate Director, International Cooperation, ISRO HQalso attended the meeting.The delegation complimented the Indian scientists for their recent space missions like Chandrayaan-2 and planned Gaganyaan mission. The delegation extended invitation to the Minister to participate in the upcoming International Astronautical Congress (IAC) to be held in Washington on 21-25th October, 2019.During the meeting, the delegation discussed various issues related to the developments in Department of Space. They discussed the possibility of holding International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in India in near future. India has the experience of hosting IAC twice earlier, in 1988 at Bangalore and in 2007 at Hyderabad.
The IAC is the biggest annual Space event in the world attracting more than 6000 participants, including leaders of Space agencies and industry; young professionals and students. Each year International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in collaboration with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) organizes the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). IAC-2018 held at Bremen, Germany in October 2018 attracted more than 6500 participants from 90 countries. IAC-2019 will be held in Washington D.C., USA in October 2019. IAC serves as a platform for knowledge sharing in astronautics, and broadening international cooperation.IAF is an international space advocacy and non-governmental organisation based in Paris. IAF, established in 1951 to foster the dialogue between scientists around the world and support international cooperation in all space-related activities, is the world’s leading space advocacy body with 366 members, including all key space agencies, companies, societies, associations and institutes across 68 countries. Each year the IAC is held in different countries with an IAF member organization serving as its host. Every year IAF invites proposals from its member organizations for hosting the IAC.