The Mexican Space Agency (AEM), a decentralized agency of the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), signed a new agreement with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), to develop the new generation satellites called “AztechSat”.

“Through this new agreement with NASA, we continue to redouble efforts to strengthen Mexico’s international cooperation, and the promotion of the training of our youth in advanced space technologies for social tasks,” said the general director of AEM, Salvador Landeros. Ayala.

He explained that, through this agreement, both space agencies will collaborate in developing satellite technology useful for lunar exploration, which at the same time will be applied to the priority task here on Earth, caring for marine fauna and the environment.

The foregoing, after the successful result of the technological demonstration mission “AztechSat-1”, the first Mexican Nanosatellite in the International Space Station, when it managed to intercommunicate with the Globalstar satellite constellation, about a thousand kilometers above its orbit.

This advance had international resonance by allowing progress in the experiment to enable Nanosatellites to stop depending exclusively on their earth stations to transmit information, in addition to taking better advantage of their useful life, an achievement that made this new agreement possible.

“With AztechSat new generation, we endorse the trust in Mexican ingenuity to develop satellite technologies, and strengthen the new Mexican space age,” said Andrés Martínez, Space Programs Executive of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Division.

He announced that leading Mexican higher education institutions were invited for this new project, and that the details of the same, and entities that will finally participate, will be announced in the official presentation (“kick-off”) of the start of the project, in an average of two months.

We are pleased to be able to officially announce the signing of this agreement, and especially for the outstanding fact that Mexican ingenuity is increasingly recognized in the international space community, which fills us with pride, they concluded.

Source: Mexican Space Agency