This year’s Opening Ceremony will be a special event with many connections from all over the world and an out-of-Earth experience. There will also be an official announcement of a new IAF digital tool collecting + 70 years of space knowledge and the winners of the IAF World Space Award. Join us in launching the first ever CyberSpace Edition of the IAC.

MASTER OF CEREMONY

Pascale EHRENFREUND

President, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France

The IAF this year again is organising its flagship plenary with the leaders of the world major space agencies. Participating Heads of Agencies will present and discuss how their respective agencies are reacting to a changing space environment and will take stock of the past year's accomplishments. The event will be divided into 2 main sections. In the first part, the Heads of Agencies will be presented with a series of questions by the moderators, engaging them into a lively discussion. The Plenary will conclude with an interactive session with the audience.

MODERATORS

Pascale EHRENFREUND

President, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France

SPEAKERS

Jim BRIDENSTINE

Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

United States of America

The Heads of Agencies press conference will give the audience the opportunity to hear firsthand all the most important and timely questions asked by space journalists.

MODERATOR

Christian FEICHTINGER

Executive Director, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France

SPEAKERS

Jim BRIDENSTINE

Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

United States of America

We are in the midst of an unprecedented COVID-19 crisis that has shook our world. Never before have we experienced a “lockdown” that has brought the whole world to a standstill and affected our livelihoods. Global leaders are challenged in the midst of the crisis because of a lack of preparedness and appropriate information to inform decision making. Economies around the world have been hit hard and we are thrown into the midst of an unprecedent financial recession. Jobs have been lost and funding has been cut across many industrial sectors, and the space sector has certainly not been spared.

Experts agree that the pandemic will be with us for a while yet and that our collective success will be determined on how we respond in delicately balancing our emphasis between public health & safety and economic recovery. Coincidently, governments around the world are battling to counterbalance social and economic policies and the critical factors that sits at the nexus of these decisions are (i) timely access to empirical data and (ii) leveraging our scientific and engineering prowess to provide impactful solutions on the ground. In this regard, it is important to remember that a significant part of the global space sector is premised on leveraging the benefits of space products and services for sustainable socio-economic-environmental development.

This Session will focus on understanding the effects the pandemic has had on various segments of the global space sector, and in addition how the sector has assisted governments and key decision makers in responding to this pandemic. The discussion will also lead into how we can better prepare for future such pandemics through the lessons we have learnt during COVID-19 and our role in defining and responding to the “new normal”.

ORGANIZER/MODERATOR

Valanathan MUNSAMI

CEO, South African National Space Agency (SANSA)

Vice-President for Developing Countries and Emerging Nations, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

South Africa

SPEAKERS

Bruce CHESLEY

Former Senior Director of Strategy, Space and Missile Systems, The Boeing Company

Vice-President for Financial Matters and Industry Relations, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

United States of America

As we have seen time and time again over the recent years, climate change is quickly shaping up to be one of the most significant global challenges facing humanity today. In order to address the variety of disasters which are becoming more common by the year – such as floods, droughts, and wild fires – as well as their underlying causes, new technological developments for climate change monitoring and mitigation are constantly being developed, particularly in the space sector.

This panel highlights some of the new technological developments and approaches in climate change monitoring and mitigation using earth observation. Three young professionals will present their work in this area and delve into topics including innovative sensor development, remote sensing data utilization, and the use of citizen science in monitoring our planet. The opening remarks and broader context will be provided by members of the DLR Executive Board Prof. Hansjörg Dittus and Dr. Walther Pelzer.

MODERATORS

Hans-Joerg DITTUS

Member of the Executive Board, German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Germany

SPEAKERS

Paola BELINGHERI

Co-Founder, IceKing App

Austria

The IAF World Space Award Highlight Lecture will feature Dr. Yu Dengyun, the Deputy Designer-in-Chief of China's Lunar Exploration Program and one of the Chang’e 4 Mission Leaders. Dr. Yu Dengyun will talk about the successful Chang’e-4 mission and their achievement to soft land on the far side of the moon for the first time in history of humankind and successfully sustain relay communication between the far side of the moon and the Earth.

INTRODUCTION

Pascale EHRENFREUND

President, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France

SPEAKER

Dengyun YU

Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Committee, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)

China

The Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations and Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator will conduct a dynamic dialogue on how NASA is using ISS and Artemis to explore as one with commercial and international partners. Their conversation will outline NASA’s plans for exploration, demonstrating that robotic and human exploration go hand-in-hand with commercial and international partnerships.

SPEAKERS

Kathryn LUEDERS

Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

United States of America

The IAF Excellence in Industry Award recognizes an industry organization for outstanding and sustainable advancements in space, showing the merits of leadership in developing and executing landmark commercial and civil space missions and for being a role model for cooperation in the global space industry workforce.

This year, this prestigious award has been awarded to Airbus Defence and Space for its excellent achievements over the years, and in particular in 2019, for managing to deliver world-beating space technology to customers around the world: from the 2400 spacecraft equipment, to the 18 satellites successfully placed in orbit.

To receive the award on behalf of Airbus Defence and Space, Dr. Jean-Marc Nasr, Head of Space Systems within Airbus Defence and Space and President of Airbus Defence and Space SAS, will be part of the ceremony and give a keynote presentation.

WELCOME

Pascale EHRENFREUND

President, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France

INTRODUCTION

Bruce CHESLEY

Former Senior Director of Strategy, Space and Missile Systems, The Boeing Company

Vice-President for Financial Matters and Industry Relations, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

United States of America

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Jean-Marc NASR

Head of Space Systems, Airbus Defence and Space

President, Airbus Defence and Space SAS,

France

The session will be a conversation between Industry Leaders on how the International Space Station enables commercialization, access to space, and the future of Low orbit. Each speaker will be allotted ~5 minutes for opening remarks/presentation followed by directed moderator questions. The last 15 minutes will be dedicated to audience/moderated Q&A

MODERATOR

Lena DE WINNE

Head of Administration, ASGARDIA

Austria

SPEAKERS

Andreas HAMMER

SVP Space Exploration, Airbus Defence and Space GmbH

Germany

COVID-19 is causing severe disruption to the global economy and has caused significant long-term damage in the aerospace industry. The virus’ impact has not been uniform in either its impact on the various industry sectors or on companies of varying size. New start-ups and other small and medium sized enterprises will likely be disproportionately influenced by the pandemic. This panel will examine a broad range of issues, including:

The panel will include company CEO’s, leading financial advisers and global economists.

MODERATOR

Michael SHEETZ

Space Reporter, CNBC

United States of America

SPEAKERS

Oren MILSTEIN

CEO, Stemrad

Israel

NASA’s Artemis program is a collaboration with commercial and international partners with the goal of crewed missions to the Moon to expand the exploration of the lunar surface. Artemis will drive innovation in new technologies encompassing several key elements for a sustainable architecture from heavy launch to crewed spacecraft to an orbiting outpost to lunar landers. This GNF will engage select leaders from government and industry who are shaping the elements to return humans to the Moon.

MODERATOR

Mika OCHIAI

Associate Senior Administrator Associate Senior Administrator Integration and Management Office Space Exploration Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Japan

SPEAKERS

Walter CUGNO

Vice President Exploration and Science Domain, Thales Alenia Space Italia

Italy

Orion is the centerpiece of the Artemis program, given its critical crew-centered mission and how Orion’s technology and systems will be leveraged across the many elements of Artemis. The Orion system, including the European Service Module, has been developed by NASA and ESA, along with their international industry partners to safely take humans to the extremes of deep space. Key system elements and technologies are also being used across the other lunar exploration elements including the Gateway and the National Team’s HLS Ascent Element to maximum safety and leverage agency investments. This GNF will focus on the key technologies, partnerships and deep space crew safety elements behind the Orion system.

SPEAKERS

Shelby HOPKINS

HLS Systems Engineer – Environmental Control and Life Support Systems Integration, Lockheed Martin Corporation

United States of America

This year’s IAC’s NextGen Networking Session will bring together the best and brightest of students and young professionals dealing with Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs). Such partnerships are characterized by government organizations, private companies, and non-governmental organizations sharing cost, risk, and benefits of success. From cooperative research to inspiring ventures as NASA’s Commercial Crew program, PPPs are vital to enable new endeavors and power an ever exciting space industry and economy - and this session is an opportunity for students and YPs that want to be a thriving part of it.

Are you considering the next step in your professional growth? Are you looking for mentorship? Do you want to meet and hear from like-minded people, kickstarting a dialogue in our sector? You’ll network with the right space folks here!

This session will showcase how the next gen is working to ensure that space is both sustainable and attainable through effective PPPs. By interacting with other attendees, you’ll give and get plenty of enriching bits and tips to help you position yourself as a bridge between governmental and private actors’ needs and ambitions.

Come to share your ideas and mingle with space professionals. Leave with fresh perspectives, new contacts, and plenty of inspiration to shape the sector and make it flourish!

MODERATOR

Mariam NASEEM

Space Consultant, Euroconsult

Canada

PANELISTS

Elizabeth BARRIOS

PhD Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant, University of Central Florida

United States of America

With a successful docking on February 25, 2020, MEV-1 achieved history when it successfully docked with the Intelsat IS-901 satellite near GEO orbit to begin a 5 year life extension service. This historic achievement is the culmination of more than 10 years of business, technical, and regulatory developments. This lecture will review this history, illustrate the climactic event of the first commercial docking between two satellites, and explore what it means for the future.

MODERATOR

Brian WEEDEN

Director of Program Planning, Secure World Foundation

United States of America

SPEAKER

Joseph D. ANDERSON

Vice President Business Development and Operations, Space Logistics LLC

United States of America

This chapter of the China Global Television Network (CGTN) Dialogue will be organized with the support of the IAF and will focus on the topic of the New Era in Commercial Space. The lively discussion will see the participation of a diverse panel of speakers from different space sectors and from varied regions worldwide.

MODERATOR

Yue ZOU

CGTN Anchor for Dialogue, China Global Television Network (CGTN)

China

SPEAKERS

Victoria ALONSO PEREZ

Founder and CEO, Chipsafer

Singapore

The IAF Excellence in “3G” Diversity Award recognizes IAF member organizations (industry, government, academia) worldwide for outstanding contributions to the fostering of “3G” (Geography, Generation, Gender) Diversity within the space sector. This year, the award recipient is the European Space Agency, for their commitment to create a modern and inclusive working environment and striving to enhance the innovative perspectives brought in by a diverse pool of talents.

Under the leadership of the Director General Jan Wörner, ESA has committed to raise the values of Diversity & Inclusiveness high on the Agency's corporate agenda. The appointment of a Chief Diversity Officer and the continued, strong support of all, including Directors and managers, have contributed to implementing relevant actions and achieving important results that will be further pursued and enhanced to ensure that ESA can move even faster in this direction. The presentation by Ersilia Vaudo, Chief Diversity Officer, ESA will provide an overview on ESA’s initiatives in pursuing greater diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), as well as in the space sector in particular, including by fostering the attractiveness of space careers. The talk will discuss the challenges that ESA, as an international organization, faces in combining the different aspects of diversity as well as the opportunities that the current demographic configuration will offer to inject young and diverse energies into the work of the Agency. The presentation will also touch upon other key areas of focus for ESA’s D&I agenda, as well as the initiatives with other organizations to join forces on D&I common objectives and make ESA D&I values visible to the outside world.

WELCOME

Pascale EHRENFREUND

President, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France

SPEAKERS

Deganit PAIKOWSKY

Lecturer, Department of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Vice-President for Diversity Initiatives and New Space Economy, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

Israel

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Ersilia VAUDO

Chief Diversity Officer, European Space Agency (ESA)

France

Powered by ICE Cubes Service in collaboration with IBM Space Tech Division

The dynamics of the space sector are rapidly changing, pushed by NewSpace initiatives riding exponential technologies. This time, terrestrial technologies are accelerating the development of space infrastructure.

In the context of “Industry 4.0/Space 4.0”, machines pave the road while humans follow. Becoming increasingly autonomous in space will require advanced Artificial Intelligence and stronger Human-Machine partnerships. Moreover, a robust Space Economy will involve enhanced autonomy, adaptability and reliability, while decreasing the dependence on Earth resources and on-ground decisions-making processes. This evolution can be achieved by harnessing the full potential of the unfolding Fourth Industrial Revolution (AI, ML, IoT, Big Data, cloud computing, advanced robotics, etc.).

With the ICE Cubes Service mission of making space a part of everyday value chains and business (in orbit and on ground), we believe that the adoption of AI-ML techniques in space can result in important steps forward for a wide range of applications, such as AI-powered assistants for medical care, research, evaluation and support of crew activities, Big Science Data processing, autonomous spacecraft and vehicles, and many more, opening new portals into what the future could look like. Nevertheless, with great computational power, comes great responsibility; a number of ethical and philosophical issues arise, and questions without clear answers yet.

MODERATOR

Hilde STENUIT

Scientist Team Lead & Business Development Team

ICE Cubes, Space Applications Services NV, Belgium

SPEAKERS

Andrei SAPERA

Marketing & Business Analyst, ICE Cubes Business Development Team

ICE Cubes, Space Applications Services NV, Belgium

The first decade of the 2020s has been an exciting time in the exploration of our solar system. Four international spacecraft have been launched, all with Mars as their destination. This plenary is comprised of scientists who will discuss these missions. Proposed panelists are from NASA, ESA, UAE, and China. Discussions will focus around the scientific objectives of the spacecraft and current mission statuses. The plenary will also examine how these robotic missions can help prepare for both Mars sample return and human exploration of Mars.

INTRODUCTION

Thomas ZURBUCHEN

Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

United States of America

MODERATOR

Steve JOLLY

Commercial Civil Space Chief Engineer, Lockheed Martin

United States of America

SPEAKERS

Yan GENG

Director of Deep Space Exploration Department of Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center (LESPC), China National Space Administration (CNSA)

China

MODERATOR

Reinhold EWALD

European Astronaut and Professor of Astronautics, University of Stuttgart

Germany

SPEAKERS

Pedro DUQUE

European Astronaut and Minister for Science and Innovation, Government of Spain

Spain

The event about European contributions to and ambitions for human and robotic exploration will be hosted by ESA Director General, Jan Wörner. NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, is invited as a featured guest to highlight the importance of international cooperation in space exploration and to jointly engage with the young professionals across Europe along with DG Wörner Our long-term cooperation in science and exploration and our joint successes on the International Space Station and in countless other projects have built a solid foundation for future cooperation. The Artemis Programme, Gateway and Mars Sample Return will be the next step in exploration and we are going together. The discussion will be moderated by a young ESA communications professional very familiar with IAC, she will invite young professionals to exchange views with the two leaders. These young engineers are involved in critical elements of the various exploration programs and will interact from different industrial sites around Europe.

MODERATOR

Ruth McAvinia

Editor for the European Space Agency, ATG-Europe

SPEAKERS

Jan WOERNER

Director General, European Space Agency (ESA)

France

The IAF launches a new initiative focused on mentorship and career development, pairing early- to mid-career professionals with experienced senior professionals in the space industry. The Mentorship Programme aims to facilitate career development and leadership capabilities of the mentee, and provide a platform for enhanced communication between the various generations represented within the IAF.

Join us to meet the mentors for the inaugural IAF Mentorship Programme whose diversity of talent, expertise and knowledge of the space sector represent authoritative voices that span the breadth of industry, academia and governments. Mentees for the 2020/2021 IAF Mentorship Programme will be selected through a competitive and open application process. Details on the application process will be presented in the session.

SPEAKERS

Minoo RATHNASABAPATHY

Research Engineer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab

Vice-President for Education and Workforce Development, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

United States of America

The Closing Ceremony provides a formal end to the activities of the IAC. There will be a video summary of the week’s highlights, presentation of awards, proper salutations to the outgoing IAF Vice-Presidents and at the end of the ceremony, the official invitation to the IAC 2021 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

MASTER OF CEREMONY

Christian FEICHTINGER

Executive Director, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France

SPEAKERS

Pascale EHRENFREUND

President, International Astronautical Federation (IAF)

France