The World Space Congress comprised of the 43rd Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and the 29th Plenary Meeting of the Committee of Space Research (COSPAR) was held in Washington, DC from 27 August to 4 September, 1992. Over 3000 people participated in the meetings where scientific papers were presented on such diverse topics as space travel, biological aspects of space travel, relativity, planetary atmospheres, space debris, space law, global change, launch vehicles, space station, space communication, navigation, Earth rotation, astrometry, satellite geodesy, use of lunar observations, and new observational techniques. Presentations dealing with the topics of this symposium are discussed, but complete reports will be forthcoming in the proceedings of the Congress.