International Astronautical Federation

The International Astronautical Federation (IAF ) has its headquarters in Paris. It was founded in 1951 with the founding president Eugen Sänger as a non-governmental organization and has 165 members from 44 countries around the world. They are led by industry, professional communities, government organizations and learned societies.

It has connections to the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law, with which the IAF organizes the annual International Astronautical Congresses.

In close cooperation with the United Nations, the IAF organizes annually the Space Workshop for Developing Nations and participates in the UniSpace III. Together with the COSPAR ( Committee on Space Research ) and the International Institute for Space Law takes the IAF an annual overview of the highlights in space for the United Nations before.

President of the IAF was 2008-2012 Berndt Feuerbacher. He was founding president after Eugen Sänger in 1951, the second German, who took over this office. He was succeeded in his office of the Japanese Kiyoshi Higuchi.