The annual world congress of the astronautics community, combining peer-reviewed technical symposia, space agency plenaries, a large student and young professional programme and an exhibition; the 77th edition runs 5 to 9 October 2026 at the NEST Convention Centre in Antalya, the first time the congress has been held in Turkey, under the theme "The World Needs More Space".
The International Astronautical Congress, universally called the IAC, is the annual world congress of the astronautics community, organised by the International Astronautical Federation and held in a different host country each year since 1950. It is the space sector's academic and institutional gathering rather than its commercial one: the core of the week is a programme of peer-reviewed technical symposia, sitting alongside plenary sessions at which the heads of the major space agencies appear, an exhibition with national pavilions, and a large student and young professional programme. Its subject range covers space exploration and science, launch and propulsion, satellite applications, space law and policy, space education and workforce, and commercial space development. The 2026 edition, the 77th, runs 5 to 9 October 2026 in Antalya, Turkey. Source: iafastro.org/events/iac/international-astronautical-congress-2026/ and iac2026.org/iac-2026, consulted 18 September 2026.
The 77th IAC runs Monday 5 to Friday 9 October 2026, five days. The venue is the NEST Convention Centre in Antalya, Turkey, described as one of the largest conference facilities in the country. This is the first time in the congress's history that it has been held in Turkey, which is the edition's defining fact and the reason the host organisations treat it as a national event as much as a scientific one. The congress moves country each year, so the 2027 edition will be elsewhere; its host had not been confirmed in the sources reachable on this pass. Source: iac2026.org and iafastro.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
The congress is organised by the International Astronautical Federation, the Paris-based international space organisation founded in 1951, hosted for 2026 by the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and co-hosted by the SAHA Istanbul Aerospace Cluster. The IAF owns the congress and moves it between member countries; the host agency runs the local organisation and uses the occasion to position its national sector, which in 2026 means positioning Turkey as a contributor to global space activity. Named figures on the organising side in the event record are Christian Feichtinger and Elena Feichtinger on the IAF side and Yusuf Kirac on the host side. General IAF support runs through support@iafastro.org. Source: iac2026.org/iac-2026 and iafastro.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
More than 6,000 participants are expected at the 2026 edition. The composition is what distinguishes the IAC from every commercial space event: researchers presenting peer-reviewed work, space agency leadership including agency heads who appear on the plenary programme, national delegations, space industry representatives, and a large cohort of students and young professionals who attend through a dedicated programme and through grant schemes. The registration categories confirm that mix: Delegates, Retired Person, Next Generation covering young professionals and full-time students, and Teachers. A commercial visitor should expect a room in which the balance of power sits with agencies and universities rather than with buyers. Source: iac2026.org/registration and the database record, consulted 18 September 2026.
Two things, and the first is historic rather than programmatic: this is the first IAC ever held in Turkey, hosted by the Turkish Space Agency with the SAHA Istanbul Aerospace Cluster co-hosting, at the NEST Convention Centre in Antalya. The second is the theme, "The World Needs More Space", which the organisers use to frame a call for visionary ideas, innovative technologies and pioneering research. The congress structure itself, technical symposia, plenaries, Global Networking Forum sessions, the exhibition and the next-generation programme, is unchanged from previous editions, which is the point of a congress that has run annually since 1950: its value comes from continuity rather than reinvention. Source: iac2026.org and spacenews.com coverage of the 2026 edition, consulted 18 September 2026.
The week combines several programme types. Technical sessions carry the peer-reviewed symposia that are the congress's academic core, organised by subject across space exploration and science, launch and propulsion, satellite applications, space law and policy, space education and workforce, and commercial space development. Special sessions and plenary events carry the agency-head and policy content. Interactive presentations provide a poster-style format. Global Networking Forum sessions run as a recurring strand through the week. Around the formal programme sit industry breakfasts, science and academic breakfasts, luncheons and receptions, and a closing ceremony, all of which appear on the published at-a-glance programme. A major exhibition with national pavilions runs alongside. No complete named speaker roster was published in the sources reachable on this pass, which is normal for a congress whose programme is assembled from accepted abstracts. Source: iac2026.org and iafastro.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
Six. Peer-reviewed technical symposia are the core and are what distinguishes the IAC from a trade show. Agency head plenaries are the institutional set piece. Interactive presentations serve as the poster format. Global Networking Forum sessions run a lighter programme through the week. The exhibition, organised substantially by national pavilion, is the commercial format. And the student and young professional programme, supported by the IAF Emerging Space Leaders Grant Programme, is a format in its own right rather than a discount category. The event record shows no organiser-run B2B matchmaking, which follows from what the congress is: meetings happen through delegations and symposia rather than through a platform. Source: iac2026.org and iafastro.org/activities/next-generation/emerging-space-leaders-grant-programme/, consulted 18 September 2026.
The congress absorbs most of what would elsewhere be side events into its own programme: industry breakfasts, science and academic breakfasts, luncheons and receptions all appear on the official at-a-glance schedule rather than running independently. National delegations and agencies customarily host their own receptions around the national pavilions, which is where much of the diplomatic business of an IAC happens, but these are invitation-based and not published. No independent third-party fringe around the 5 to 9 October dates was found in the sources reachable on this pass. Searched: the official congress site, the IAF event pages and space trade press. Source: iac2026.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
Tiered, with exact 2026 amounts not retrievable in the sources reachable on this pass. What is documented is the structure: registration categories are Delegates, Retired Person, Next Generation covering young professionals and full-time students, and Teachers, and rates differ for IAF members and non-members. Registration in the Next Generation or student categories requires uploading supporting documents including proof of student status and identification, so the reduced rate is verified rather than self-declared. Early bird registration ran until the end of June 2026 and has therefore closed. Prices are published at iac2026.org/registration, which is where a prospective delegate should check the current band. The IAF also runs the Emerging Space Leaders Grant Programme, which funds attendance for selected young participants. Source: iac2026.org/registration and iac2026.org/faqs, consulted 18 September 2026.
Through the call for papers, and the 2026 windows have closed. The main abstract submission deadline for IAC 2026 was 28 February 2026 at 23:59 CET, extended to 6 March 2026, and a Late Breaking Abstract window ran from 27 May to 10 June 2026 at 23:59 CEST. Abstracts are submitted against published technical criteria through the IAF system, and accepted abstracts become papers presented in the technical symposia. This is the most genuinely open speaking route of any event in this registry: acceptance rests on the abstract and on peer review rather than on sponsorship or invitation, which is why the technical programme is the part of the IAC that the research community takes seriously. Questions go to support@iafastro.org. For the 2027 edition, the equivalent window will open in late 2026 and close around the end of February 2027. Source: iac2026.org/paper-submissions-information and iafastro.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
The exhibition runs alongside the congress and is organised substantially by national pavilion, which is the route most companies take: a national space agency or industry cluster takes a pavilion and member companies exhibit within it, which for a small supplier is cheaper and better positioned than contracting space directly. Direct exhibiting and sponsorship enquiries go through the congress organisers at iac2026.org and through the IAF. No public stand rate card or sponsorship tier pricing was retrievable on this pass, so terms are quoted. An exhibitor should note the audience the exhibition actually serves: agency and research attendees rather than procurement buyers, which makes the IAC a visibility and relationship event rather than a sales floor. Source: iac2026.org and expoturco.com guidance on the Antalya exhibition rules, consulted 18 September 2026.
Not publicly disclosed as a named tiered roster in the sources reachable on this pass. The institutional backing is documented and is the more meaningful answer for this event: the International Astronautical Federation owns the congress, the Turkish Space Agency hosts it, and the SAHA Istanbul Aerospace Cluster co-hosts, with the call for papers document itself noting supporting organisations. The IAF's own membership, spanning space agencies, industry and academic institutions worldwide, is the structure that funds and populates the congress. No exhibitor count for the 2026 exhibition was published in the sources reachable on this pass. The event record holds no official media partner list, so no mention in this fiche carries a "(media partner)" marker. Source: iac2026.org and iafastro.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
Space agencies, universities and research institutes first, industry second. The registration categories, which include Retired Person and Teachers alongside Delegates and Next Generation, describe an academic and institutional population rather than a commercial one, and the plenary programme is built around agency heads. National pavilions in the exhibition mean that the industrial presence is largely organised by country rather than by company, so a visitor walks a floor arranged by flag. The commercial space sector is represented, and commercial space development is one of the congress's named subject areas, but a company looking for procurement conversations with buyers will find far more of them at a supply chain exhibition such as Space Tech Expo Europe six weeks later. Source: iac2026.org/registration and the database record, consulted 18 September 2026.
Press accreditation is handled by the IAF and is open for the 2026 congress, through iafastro.org/events/iac/international-astronautical-congress-2026/media/press-accreditation.html. The IAF offers a limited number of complimentary "Accredited Press" badges and states that each application undergoes thorough evaluation, with priority given to active journalists working directly with bona fide news organisations or recognised daily or monthly publications. That wording sets a higher bar than most events in this registry: freelance, blog and content-creator applications are not excluded outright but are competing for a capped allocation against staff journalists. No accreditation deadline was published in the sources reachable on this pass, and given the cap, applying early is the practical advice. Source: iafastro.org press accreditation page, consulted 18 September 2026.
Coverage is led by the specialist space press and is substantial: SpaceNews has published on the 2026 congress directly, and Space and Defense has covered the technical programme. Institutional and academic bodies carry the congress for their own communities, including the Space4Water platform, the International Space Elevator Consortium, the University of Houston's SICSA centre and professional societies such as ASEM, which publishes IAC deadlines for its members. The IAF publishes extensively through iafastro.org, including the call for papers, the technical programme browser at iafastro.directory and the special sessions material. Turkish and regional trade sources including ExpoTurco cover the exhibition arrangements. The event record holds no official media partner list, so no mention in this fiche carries a "(media partner)" marker. Source: the items named above, consulted 18 September 2026.
Better than most events in this registry, for a structural reason: the congress's core output is peer-reviewed. Abstracts are submitted against published technical criteria, reviewed, and presented as papers that enter the IAF's own permanent congress archive at iafastro.directory, so the substance of the week is checkable in a way that a conference of invited keynotes is not. The attendance figure of more than 6,000 is an organiser figure without independent audit, as everywhere, but it carries less weight here because nobody attends the IAC on the strength of its headcount. The one thing to read carefully is host-country communication: a first-ever IAC in Turkey is a national positioning exercise for the Turkish Space Agency and the SAHA Istanbul cluster, and their material about the congress is promotional in a way that the IAF's technical documentation is not. Source: cross-reading of iafastro.org and iac2026.org against the space press items above, 18 September 2026.
Anyone whose purpose is selling. The IAC is a scientific and institutional congress with an exhibition attached, not a procurement event: a component supplier looking for purchase orders will find the European supply chain far more efficiently at Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen in November, and a downstream space data or applications company will find neither its customers nor its peers here in any density. The five-day length and the technical register also make it a poor fit for a general technology visitor: this is a week of symposia, not a two-day summit. And anyone hoping to speak should note that the route is peer review and both 2026 submission windows closed in the first half of the year. Source: iac2026.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
It is the global fixture around which the rest of the space calendar arranges itself. Held every year since 1950 in a rotating host country, the IAC is the one week when agency leadership, the research community and the international industry are in the same building, and national agencies time announcements to it. In the autumn of 2026 it sits in early October, six weeks ahead of Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen, which serves the manufacturing supply chain, and the two are complements rather than competitors: a company active in both worlds attends both, and a company active in one should be clear about which. Within Turkey and the region, the 2026 edition is the largest space event the country has hosted. Source: iac2026.org and the EventsIndex space tech registry, consulted 18 September 2026.
The congress itself is held once a year in a single host country, which changes annually: Antalya in 2026 is one edition in an unbroken annual series running since 1950, and there is no parallel or regional IAC. The host country for 2027 had not been confirmed in the sources reachable on this pass. The International Astronautical Federation runs other activities through the year, including the Global Networking Forum programme and the Emerging Space Leaders Grant Programme, but these are IAF activities rather than IAC editions. Note that the abbreviation IAC is used by unrelated conferences in other fields, so a reader should check the domain: this congress is at iac2026.org and iafastro.org. Source: iafastro.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
English. The event record gives English as the sole working language, and the congress operates in English throughout: the call for papers, the abstract submission system, the technical programme and the plenary sessions. No Turkish-language track and no simultaneous interpretation is documented for the 2026 edition, which for a congress hosted by a national agency is worth confirming with the organisers if it matters. Source: iac2026.org and the database record, consulted 18 September 2026.
Not publicly disclosed as a live remote option for 2026: no virtual pass, livestream access or online-only registration category was found in the sources reachable on this pass, and the registration categories listed are all physical attendance types. What does persist afterwards, and is unusual in its completeness, is the written record: accepted papers enter the IAF congress archive, browsable by edition at iafastro.directory/iac/browse/IAC-26/, which means the technical content of the congress remains available in a way that conference video rarely does. For a researcher, that archive is a better remote substitute than a stream would be. Source: iafastro.directory and iac2026.org, consulted 18 September 2026.
Terms are published by the organisers at iac2026.org/terms-and-conditions, but the specific refund window, cancellation schedule and transfer procedure were not retrievable in the sources reachable on this pass. Two points bear on the question. Registration is tiered and category-based, with student and Next Generation rates requiring uploaded proof, so a registration refused on eligibility grounds raises a refund question that the terms document should answer. And early bird registration closed at the end of June 2026, meaning many delegates committed more than three months ahead. A delegate should read the terms and conditions page before registering. Source: iac2026.org/terms-and-conditions and iac2026.org/faqs, consulted 18 September 2026.
Not publicly disclosed in the sources reachable on this pass. No accessibility statement, accessible route guidance, accessible seating arrangement for the plenary or symposia rooms, or access contact was found on the congress site or the IAF event pages. The NEST Convention Centre is described as one of the largest conference facilities in Turkey and is a modern purpose-built venue, but its own provision was not verified and is not restated here as if it were the organiser's commitment. A delegate with access requirements should raise them through the congress organisers or through support@iafastro.org well before the October dates, particularly given that the congress spans five days across multiple parallel session rooms. Searched: the congress site's FAQ, registration and terms pages. Source: iac2026.org/faqs, consulted 18 September 2026.
The congress is at the NEST Convention Centre in Antalya, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Antalya Airport is a major international gateway with direct connections across Europe, the Middle East and Turkey's domestic network, and is the arrival point for essentially all delegates; Istanbul is the usual connecting hub for long-haul arrivals. There is no rail link to Antalya from the rest of Turkey, so onward travel from the airport to the venue and to hotels is by road, taxi, shuttle or hired car. Antalya in early October is at the end of its tourist season, which means both good weather and substantial hotel capacity, but also that booking early matters for a 6,000-person congress. No congress shuttle arrangement was documented in the sources reachable on this pass. Source: iac2026.org and iac2026.org/faqs, consulted 18 September 2026.
Almost every event in this registry assembles its programme by invitation, by sponsorship, or by both, and the honest answer to "how do I speak here" is usually "know someone or buy a stand". The IAC assembles its technical programme from abstracts submitted against published criteria and reviewed before acceptance, with a main deadline of 28 February 2026, an extension to 6 March, and a late-breaking window in June. That single mechanism changes what the week is worth. A paper presented in an IAC symposium has passed a filter that a keynote slot at a commercial conference has not, the resulting papers enter a permanent archive that anyone can browse by edition, and the researchers in the room know both of those things. It also explains the registration categories, which include Teachers and Retired Person alongside Delegates: this is a congress built around a scientific community with a life cycle, not a marketplace built around a buying cycle.
The International Astronautical Federation moves its congress between member countries every year, and for the host the week is never only a congress. The 77th IAC is the first held in Turkey, hosted by the Turkish Space Agency and co-hosted by the SAHA Istanbul Aerospace Cluster, and the organisers state plainly that it is meant to position Turkey as a contributor to global space activity. That dual purpose is not a criticism, it is how the IAC has worked for seventy-six editions, and it is why host countries compete to take it. But it does mean a reader should separate two registers when reading material about this edition. The IAF's technical documentation, the call for papers, the submission criteria, the congress archive, is the same in Antalya as it was anywhere else. The host communication about what the congress means for Turkish space is a national positioning exercise, and its claims about the sector's trajectory should be weighed as such rather than absorbed as findings of the congress.
Congress site: iac2026.org. About the congress: iac2026.org/iac-2026. Registration: iac2026.org/registration. Call for papers and submissions: iac2026.org/paper-submissions-information. FAQs: iac2026.org/faqs. Terms and conditions: iac2026.org/terms-and-conditions. IAF event page: iafastro.org/events/iac/international-astronautical-congress-2026/. Press accreditation: iafastro.org/events/iac/international-astronautical-congress-2026/media/press-accreditation.html. Congress paper archive: iafastro.directory/iac/browse/IAC-26/. Emerging Space Leaders Grant Programme: iafastro.org/activities/next-generation/emerging-space-leaders-grant-programme/. Support: support@iafastro.org.