Committee on Space Research


The Committee on Space Research was established by the International Council for Science in 1958.
Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in space on an international level, with emphasis on the free exchange of results, information, and opinions, and providing a forum, open to all scientists, for the discussion of problems that may affect space research. These objectives are achieved through the organization of symposia, publication, and other means.
COSPAR has created a number of research programmes on different topics, a few in cooperation with other scientific Unions. The long-term project COSPAR international reference atmosphere started in 1960; since then it has produced several editions of the high-atmosphere code CIRA. The code "IRI" of the URSI-COSPAR working group on the International Reference Ionosphere was first edited in 1978 and is yearly updated.

General Assembly

Every second year, COSPAR calls for a General Assembly. These are conferences currently gathering more than a thousand participating space researchers. The most recent assemblies are listed in the table below. The 41st General Assembly in Istanbul was cancelled due to the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt.
General
Assembly
YearPlaceCountry
44th2022AthensGreece
43rd2020SydneyAustralia
42nd2018PasadenaUSA
41st2016Istanbul TUR
40th2014MoscowRUS
39th2012MysoreIND
38th2010BremenDEU
37th2008MontrealCAN
36th2006BeijingChina
35th2004ParisFRA
34th2002HoustonUSA
33rd2000WarsawPOL
32nd1998NagoyaJPN
31st1996BirminghamGBR
30th1994HamburgDEU
29th1992Washington, DCUSA
28th1990The HagueNLD
27th1988EspooFIN
26th1986ToulouseFRA
25th1984GrazAUT
24th1982OttawaCAN
23rd1980BudapestHUN
22nd1979BangaloreIND
21st1978InnsbruckAUT
20th1977Tel-AvivISR
19th1976Philadelphia, PAUSA
18th1975VarnaBGR
17th1974Sao PauloBRA
16th1973KonstanzDEU
15th1972MadridESP
14th1971Seattle, WAUSA
13th1970LeningradSUN
12th1969PragueCSK
11th1968TokyoJPN
10th1967LondonGBR
9th1966ViennaAUT
8th1965Mar del PlataARG
7th1964FlorenceITA
6th1963WarsawPOL
5th1962Washington, DCUSA
4th1961FlorenceITA
3rd1960NiceFRA
2nd1959The HagueNLD
1st1958LondonGBR

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