The European Space Research Organisation was founded in 1964 but Spain had already an ongoing space activity as a result of agreements signed between INTA and NASA in March 1960.

One of the first cooperative programmes resulting from these agreements was the design and installation of a sounding rocket range in Spain and I was offered the leadership of that project in 1966. My background at that time with a doctorate in aeronautical engineering, experience in flight testing and in development of aeronautical telemetry and communications systems qualified me for the job. I accepted this offer and the range became operational in October of that same year.

Next year I was given the responsibility for another major space cooperative programme, INTASAT, the first Spanish satellite project. The satellite with a design and manufacture totally developed in Spain was launched by NASA in 1974 and operated satisfactorily for the whole of its intended life time.

It was 1975 and I had found in the astronautical field a more complex technology and more integrated systems than the ones used in Spanish aeronautics at that time. I was attracted by these new challenges and this oriented the future of my professional life.

My connection with IAF, as an individual, has always been through the International Astronautical Congresses and then through the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) of which I became a member in the Congress of Bangalore in 1988.

The IAF, IAA and in particular the Congresses are important forums where people from industry, research centres and universities have the opportunity to know their respective programmes and develop solid relations that result in proposals defined with a high degree of freedom. In this manner these organisations and the Congress become beacons, radiating guidelines and support to selected areas of global astronautical activity.

The role of Co-Chair implies a high responsibility in these moments when we are in a new century and we need to contribute to the aforementioned global leadership. In addition we have to prepare the Congress for a future dominated by new technologies and larger audiences.

Finally a close collaboration with the IAF, IAA and IISL is always mandatory as they are the sponsoring organisations of the Congress, and attention has also to be paid to local audiences, young professionals and students as well as to the interests of the audience. This imposes a very demanding and complex responsibility on the International Programme Committee.

The IPC is a layered organisation with people in charge of sessions (chairs), symposia (coordinators) and categories (the steering group). My direct role as a member of this IPC is, in close contact with the former and upcoming Co-Chairs, to direct the activity of the Steering group, to coordinate with the sponsoring organisations - mainly the IAF and with the LOC - and to receive the operational support of the IAF Secretariat.

My responsibility to the IAF Bureau is to organise a Congress that reflects the recent technological and scientific advances in the astronautical field. And this should be done taking into consideration the global nature and demanding standards of our activity, within the time and space limitations of an affordable and attractive Congress.

In this job one profits from lessons learned in former Congresses but is supposed to respect accepted practices. With respect to my nomination I can say that it is a recent practice to select as Co-Chair of each Congress a member of the Academy from the corresponding host country.

In the case of Spain this rule reduces the number of potential candidates. This plus my long managerial experience in this field and my willingness to contribute may explain the selection. But most likely the real reason has been the kindness of many friends in this field.

Spain has developed important national space programmes in the last years including its own scientific, communications and Earth observations satellites.

At the same time Spain has a significant participation in all major European programmes (i.e. Galileo) and is a founding member of ESRO/ESA. Spain is a solid member of the European space sector that also has a long tradition of cooperative programmes with NASA. It is only natural that Spain be a candidate to host the Congress. The important capabilities of its tourist industry and its pleasant climate facilitate this claim and the selection of Valencia.

After Barcelona, Madrid and Málaga this will be the fourth time Spain hosts the Congress and this fact is a tribute to the important effort of Spain in this field of astronautics, an effort maintained for almost 50 years already. The importance of the Valencia Congress is given by the contributions received from 44 nations, a fact that confirms the global character of our profession, and by a programme with more than 1400 technical communications organised in 26 different symposia.

These are record numbers and a fact that illustrates the complexity of the astronautical activity and the wide scope of interests of the audience. This plus the expected large audience are evidences of the importance and authority of the IAC. But this Congress also initiates basic changes to the Congress format and this is another very important aspect. The benefits for Spain are already known. Spain with more than 100 papers accepted by the IPC is one of the seven countries in this selected 100+ group.

This is important for our scientists and engineers. In addition a solid outreach programme developed by the Local Organising Committee along the year and culminating in a Congress Open Day places astronautical activity close to the people. This is important for Valencians. But the Congress places Valencia close to the heart of a high number of delegates, and for many years Valencia will remain there. This is important for everybody involved in this Congress.

It is already a tradition to have a strong technical programme and the record number of proposals submitted this year to the IPC has permitted to improve the high quality that is a traditional feature of the Congress.

In addition in 2006 we placed a particular emphasis on some parts of this programme. These parts are the Plenary Events, the Poster Sessions and the Outreach Programme. The Plenary Events and Highlight Lectures are the most visible parts of the programme, presentations that take place with no other Congress activity in parallel. A very special attention has been paid to provide events of excellence and to devote a particular attention to select topics of social interest in response to the mandate of the Theme selected for this Congress: “Bringing space closer to people”.

Nine PE’s and 4 Highlight Lectures were approved starting with a round table with the directors of all major space agencies presenting their plans and programmes and continuing with other events of the highest interest and topicality such as “Life on Mars?”, Regulatory Challenges to the Utilisation of Space, Impact of Space Exploration on Society, Origin and Development of the Universe, Voyager explores the final frontier of the Solar System, etc.

The second aspect is the important effort initiated to upgrade the Poster Sessions. This effort initiates a series of modifications that will impact the format of future Congresses and its capacity to better serve larger audiences. A parallel effort affecting the internal organisation consolidates this aspect and will facilitate the preparation of next Congresses.

Finally, the effort spent to “bring space closer to people”, has generated a very important outreach programme and placed the astronautical activity within the reach of Valencia people with no distinction of age. The final part of this year-long outreach programme was the Congress Open Day composed by two Plenary Events devoted to present two topics of high interest to any audience.

The first topic was the utilisation of space assets to protect UNESCO World Heritage sites and Biosphere reserves. The second topic was a presentation of the activity of the astronauts in present near Earth missions and in future exploratory missions.