Prelude and first decade, 1951–1961

Abstract

The initiative leading to the establishment of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) was taken in 1949 by the Stuttgart based Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung (GfW), who proposed to other astronautical societies that a conference should be arranged to establish mutual co-operation. The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) agreed to organize such a conference in London in 1951, but in the interim the Groupement Astronautique Français (GAF) arranged a preliminary meeting to set up the agenda for the London meeting and to define its objectives. Representatives from astronautical groups in seven European countries and one South American society met in Paris in October 1950. Their meetings were preceded, on 30 September, by a large public gathering organized by the GAF, in the Sorbonne and was designated the Premier Congrès International d'Astronautique, a style which was to be adopted, in its English translation, for the subsequent annual conferences of the IAF. The representatives agreed that the objective of the London conference should be to create a federation of autonomous national astronautical societies, whose main purpose would be to provide an annual forum where these societies would meet. The London conference in September 1951, held in the City of Westminster, following the Paris precedent, was designated the IInd International Astronautical Congress. Astronautical and rocket societies from the ten countries were represented and became signatories to the agreement founding the IAF on 4 September 1951. The London congress set the pattern for subsequent congresses, in particular introducing technical lecture sessions. At the IIIrd Congress, held in Stuttgart, the first under the aegis of the newly founded IAF, a constitution was agreed and a Finance Committee was elected. The Constitution established that the Federation should be registered in Switzerland and be governed by a council of voting members—one only from each country. Subsequent congresses saw the gradual introduction of familiar federation institutions. At Zurich in 1953 a Credentials Committee, to screen applications for membership, was introduced and the publication of a regular journal proposed. The following year's congress at Innsbruck marked the establishment of the Astronautica Acta. In 1955 at Copenhagen the scope of membership was broadened to include institutional membership. The VIIth IAF Congress in Rome saw the introduction of the Nominations Committee to recommend candidates for the annual election of officers. The 1957 congress at Barcelona was the first astronautical conference of the space age, immediately following the launching of Sputnik 1. That congress saw the first formal submission of a proposal to set up an International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) though this was not discussed. At the Amsterdam congress in 1958, the number of papers increased to 80 and parallel sessions were introduced. The Xth Congress returned to the City of Westminster where a resolution founding the IAA was adopted, naming Theodore von Kármán as its Director. Immediately, editorial responsibility for the Astronautica Acta was transferred to the IAA from the Federation, taking effect from 1 January 1960. At the same congress a resolution founding an International Institute of Space Law (IISL) was approved. It was also resolved that the Federation should set up its headquarters in Paris. The XIth Congress at Stockholm had, as it main items of business, the inauguration of the IAA and the IISL. Proposals for the structure and statutes of the Academy were duly approved and 45 founding members appointed. The IISL statutes were also approved. The draft of a new IAF constitution, which had been scrutinized at spring meetings of the officers, was referred back to the committee. One of the main features of the draft had been the introduction of a Bureau made up of IAF officers and, ex-officio, the Director of the IAA and the President of the IISL. Pending the eventual adoption of the new Constitution, the Bureau would function informally. In 1961 the Federation as we know it today emerged beginning with the spring meeting in Paris, held in premises shared by the IAF and IAA, and with the Executive Secretariat in place. The main business was for the informal Bureau to meet with the committee responsible for the draft of the new constitution, to amend it to a form acceptable to all member societies. This done, the proposed new Constitution was submitted to the ensuing congress in Washington D.C. The XIIth Congress saw the IAF emerge from its adolescence to adult status. The new Constitution was approved and the Bureau was formally established. Henceforth, the plenary gathering of member societies was designated the General Assembly and reference to the IAF Council discontinued. A radical innovation was the creation of the International Programme Committee with future responsibility for planning and co-ordinating the congress technical lecture sessions. At Washington the first task of the Bureau was to draw up the Terms of Reference and the functional duties of this committee which have remained substantially unchanged.