The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) held the annual meeting of its International Programme Committee in Paris between Monday 16 March and Wednesday 18 March 2009 to prepare the next International Astronautical Congress which is to be held in Daejeon, Republic of Korea in October.

Other IAF committee meetings were held at the same time alongside the first 2009 meeting of the IAF Bureau.

The meetings were largely held at the Salons du Cercle Republicain in central Paris. Tuesday afternoon was be based in UNESCO, 125 Avenue de Suffren, Paris.

Recognising that during March, many of our experts are gathered together at this meeting, the IAF organised a Science Update during this time.

The 2009 IAF Science Update Lectures, held at UNESCO, focused on three topics:-

• CNES gave an update on the COROT mission, looking for extrasolar planets
• COSPAR hosted an information lecture about the Spitzer Space Telescope
• ISRO detailed the science results from the recent Chandrayaan mission to the Moon.

The moderator was Roger Bonnet, President of COSPAR.