The Acta Astronautica Journal was firstly published in 1955 as the official Journal of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) with the title Astronautica Acta. It is entering its 60th year in 2014. In 1962, the Astronautica Acta became the official Journal of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) established in 1960. A total of 18 volumes had been published from 1955 to 1973 under the leadership of three Editor-in-Chiefs: F. Hecht, Theodore von Karman, and Martin Summerfield. In 1974, A.K. Oppenheim became the new Editor-in-Chief and several evolved changes were performed including change of the title to Acta Astronautica (for grammatical correctness), cover page change, and format change. From 1974 to 2010, another three Editor-in-Chiefs led the journal with 67 volumes published. They were A.K. Oppenheim, Jean-Pierre Marec, and Rupert Gerzer. The current Editor-in-Chief Jeng-Shing Chern (Rock) took over the job from 2011. Total pages and articles published in 2012 are 3586 and 356, respectively. Currently, the Acta Astronautica Editorial Board consists of one Editor-in-Chief, 15 Co-Editors, one Managing Editor and one Honorary Editor-in-Chief (Jean-Pierre Marec). After 59 years, the Acta Astronautica has become a well-known journal worldwide. Its current rank and impact factor are 7/63 and 0.701, respectively. This paper presents some of the details as well as new strategies and steps. In particular, supports from the IAA Academicians are mandatory and most welcome.
This is the 59th year of the Acta Astronautica Journal. Therefore, it is entering its 60th year in 2014. The purpose of this paper is to present the historical evolutions as well as changes of the Journal up to now. Firstly published in1955 with the title Astronautica Acta, it was the official journal of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). Then the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) was established in 1960. After two years, the Astronautica Acta became the official journal of the IAA. A total of 18 volumes had been published from 1955 to 1973 under the leadership of three Editor-in-Chiefs: F. Hecht, Theodore von Karman, and Martin Summerfield.
In 1974, A.K. Oppenheim became the new Editor-in-Chief and several evolved changes were performed including change of the title to Acta Astronautica (for grammatical correctness), cover page change, and format change. From 1974 to 2010, another three Editor-in-Chiefs led the journal with 67 volumes published: 1974–1985 one volume/year, 12 total; 1986–1990 two volumes/year, 10 total; 1991–1995 three volumes/year, 15 total; and 1996–2010 two volumes/year, 30 total. The three Editor-in-Chiefs were A.K. Oppenheim, Jean-Pierre Marec, and Rupert Gerzer. The current Editor-in-Chief Jeng-Shing Chern (Rock) took over the job from 2011. After 59 years, the Acta Astronautica has become a well-known journal worldwide. Its rank has been improved from 14/42 in 2009 to 9/43 in 2010 to 8/45 in 2011 and to 7/63 in 2012. Also, its impact factor has been increased from 0.508 in 2009 to 0.609 in 2010 to 0.614 in 2011 and to 0.701 in 2012. Total pages and articles published in 2012 are 3586 and 356, respectively. For many years, IAA authorized the Elsevier Science Ltd. to handle publication affairs.
Currently, the Acta Astronautica Editorial Board consists of one Editor-in-Chief (Rock Jeng-Shing Chern), 15 Co-Editors (Nickolay N. Smirnov, Antonio Viviani, Rupert Gerzer, Martina Heer, Maria Antonietta Perino, Christophe Bonnal, Filippo Graziani, Vipparthi Adimurthy, Yu Lu, Arun K. Misra, A. Ingemar Skoog, Anna D. Guerman, Radhika Ramachandran, Jiawen Qiu and Jie Chen), one Managing Editor (Eva Yi-Wei Chang), and one Honorary Editor-in-Chief (Jean-Pierre Marec).
Further change occurred in 2012 with a new volume in every month for possible multiple issues in each individual month. This paper presents some of the details before entering the 60th year of Acta Astronautica [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] and [8]. After this introduction section, the Astronautica Acta era is presented in Section 2. Then 3, 4, 5 and 6 present the Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Acta Astronautica era, respectively. Finally, Section 7 gives the conclusions.
For Astronautica Acta which was firstly published in 1955, the next year (2014) will be the 60th year of the Acta Astronautica Journal. Even under the sponsorships of IAF, IAA and IISL, it is still an extremely hard work and needs a lot of effort from many volunteers to grow the Journal. It had a very low IF with a ranking almost at the end in 1990s. Then the IF was improved gradually with the ranking climbing to 15% among the aerospace engineering category journals in 2000s. All the success is attributable to previous Editor-in-Chiefs, in particular, Jean-Pierre Marec, and their backup groups who built and strengthened the basis of Acta Astronautica. Nowadays, the responsibility of inheriting the past and ushering in the future are on the shoulders of the current Editorial Board. We have confidence to enhance the quality and improve the worldwide effectiveness of Acta Astronautica continuously in the future by taking further strategies and steps. Supports from the IAA Academicians are mandatory and most welcome.
