13 May 2015
In a ceremony on May 8 that featured the induction of SpaceX Founder Elon Musk as a full member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), Professor Schaefer and two others were inducted as corresponding members of the IAA at a IAA regional meeting at SpaceX facilities in Hawthorne, CA. The IAA was founded in 1960 through the efforts of legendary rocket developer Theodore von Karman. Professor Schaefer was recognized for his contributions to the establishment of the USA’s first degree bearing program in space law (combined with cyber and telecommunications law) and his outreach to government and the private sector on matters of importance to the space sector. He presented a paper on commercial space liability at the conference prior to the IAA’s Heads of Space Agency Summit in Washington, D.C. in January 2014.