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That's when the 55th Annual International Astronautical Congress arrived in town, bringing with it thousands of the world's top space experts, scientists, astronauts, and space agency and industry representatives. Along with the scientific program of lectures, talks, and presentations on a wide array of topics in leading edge research, Vancouver also hosted a public festival called SpaceFest that featured a range of public demonstrations and activities.
The research topics ranged from the latest on Mars Rover explorations to updates about the Hubble Space telescope and the International Space Station to plans for supporting life in space. The conference also included presentations by Canadian astronauts, and night sky observatory viewings at Vancouver's H.R. Macmillan Space Centre.
"I had the sense that I could talk to somebody and I could buy myself a rocket, and I could design a satellite, and I could hire somebody to put it up for me,” says University of Washington professor Martin Kushmerick, who headed a space medicine symposium. "It was that kind of a meeting.”
The International Astronautical Congress is held annually by the International Astronautical Federation, an association of aerospace professional and trade associations, national space agencies, and industrial firms in 45 countries. The 2004 conference was hosted by the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute. The next conference will be held in Fukuoka, Japan, from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21, 2005.
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