The Mexican Space Agency (AEM) was established in 2010 to coordinate and promote the country's space activities, aiming to utilize space technology for the betterment of the Mexican population and foster innovation. AEM focuses on human capital development, industrial and scientific advancement, and international cooperation, exemplified by initiatives like the construction of the Aztechsat-1 satellite and partnerships with NASA. The agency has ambitious plans to position Mexico as a key player in the global space market by developing a domestic space industry and fostering educational programs to inspire future generations in STEM fields.

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Since its creation almost 10 years ago, the Mexican Space Agency has been an
important player in consolidating the country’s space sector. Its mission is to
use science and space technology to meet the needs of the Mexican population
and to promote innovation and the development of the country’s space sector,
contributing to the peaceful use of outer space. Here, Carlos Duarte looks at
the role the Agency is playing in constructing Mexico’s space sector.
Carlos Duarte Muñoz
Deputy Director
General for Human
Capital Development
in the Space Field,
Mexican Space
Agency
1962 until November 1977. CONEE´s closure, by
Presidential decree, resulted in a lack of
coordination of space activities in the country, as
these were now performed individually by several
Mexican academic organisations, such as the
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM), the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, (IPN),
the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y
Electrónica (INAOE) and the Centro de
Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior
de Ensenada (CICESE).
Concurrently, while trying to bring Mexico
into the modern technological age, the Mexican
government purchased a series of communications
satellites to service the country. Initially the
S
pace activities in Mexico began on 28
December 1957 with the launch of a
sounding rocket developed by
professors and students of the
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí. These
activities stimulated the creation of groups
dedicated to experimental rocketry and space
activities in several Mexican universities. This
enthusiasm led to the creation of the National
Commission of Outer Space (Comisión Nacional
del Espacio Exterior, CONEE), on 31 August 1962.
CONEE was an office of the Secretariat of
Communications and Transport (SCT) and was
devoted to doing experimental work in rocketry,
telecommunications and atmospheric studies from
Mexico’s
path to space
NASA

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Morelos 1 and 2, geostationary satellites operated
between 1985 and 1998 to provide telephony, data,
and television services, and then Solidaridad 1
and 2 operated from 1997. These satellites were
eventually privatised and converted into the
Satmex Satellite System. More recently, during
the first decade of the 21st century, the Mexican
Government acquired the MexSat constellation of
geostationary satellites, comprised of the Morelos
3 satellite for fixed communications and the
Bicentenario for mobile communications.
Creation
The Mexican space agency (AEM - Agencia Espacial
Mexicana) came into being after lobbying by
Mexican academics who recognised the country
needed an organisation responsible for conducting a
national space programme. These efforts resulted in
the publication by President Felipe Calderón of the
law that created the agency in July 2010.
AEM is a decentralised entity of the Federal
Government of Mexico, created as a public
decentralised organism attached to the SCT with
the mandate to coordinate and regulate space
activities in the country. It started operations
in 2013. AEM is divided into five strategic areas:
1) Human Capital Development; 2) Industrial
Development; 3) Science and Technology
Development, 4) International Affairs and Space
Security, and 5) ICT Management and Finance.
On 1 November 2011, Dr Francisco Javier Mendieta
Jiménez was appointed as its first Director General,
under a Board of Directors headed by the Minister
of Communications and Transport. The composition
of the Board includes several Ministries and
Departments, including Defence, National Treasury,
Science, Technology and Research, Environmental
Protection, Geography and Informatics, and
Education, among others.
The AEM is determined to use all the expertise
and experience it has at its disposal to successfully
carry out its mission. “We will do what it takes
to develop our country, connect people, build
infrastructure and communications,” Dr Mendieta
Jiménez said, explaining that the agency would
also “use space to attract the vocations of our
young people to science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM) to build technological
capabilities for our country.”
Current activities
AEM has focused its priorities on the
development of an ambitious capacity building
programme, aimed at creating a critical mass of
indigenous manpower that will be responsible
Parts of Mexico and the
US photographed from the
International Space
Station.
for the implementation of the Space Activities
National Plan. This programme is being
carried out in collaboration with international
organisations with proven competence in space
technology, like NASA, ESA and several national
and international universities.
Among these activities, AEM manages a
programme of research internships at NASA for
Mexican students. Through the programme,
AEM seeks to encourage young people
interested in science, technology, engineering,
or mathematics, to develop skills in space
science and technology.
Mexico´s higher education organisations
nominate the most outstanding students
interested in space science and technology
so they can acquire knowledge and skills by
developing real space projects at the NASA
Ames Research Center in San Jose, California.
Once they finish their internship, students
share their experience with other students,
and are encouraged to promote space science
and technology among children to inspire
vocations in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics.
Jóvenes Hacia el
Espacio (Youth Towards
Space), is an AEM
educational programme
that enables and
encourages young
people’s interest in
science, develops their
scientific skills and
motivates them to finish
secondary school and get
into university.
AEM came into being thanks to several years of
lobbying by Mexican academics who recognised
that Mexico needed an organisation responsible
for conducting a national space programme

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AztechSat-1
AEM has recognised that the current growth in
the space sector is related to the use of small
satellites. For this reason, it partnered with
NASA to establish an international collaboration
programme for capacity building in small
satellites. As a first step in this direction,
AEM, with the support of NASA, coordinated
the design and construction of AztechSat-1,
a 1U CubeSat created by a team of students
and academics from the Universidad Popular
Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) in
central Mexico.
AztechSat-1 mission objectives are:
• Develop a flight-ready CubeSat for
deployment from the International Space
Station (ISS);
• Demonstrate GlobalStar´s Network as a
method of advancing communications in
CubeSat missions.
At the time of publicartion, AztechSat1 has
been constructed and has passed environmental
tests that make it ready for launch in October
2019 from the ISS.
AztechSat1 will be the first Mexican satellite
to be deployed from the ISS and it is recognised
as a model for Latin American countries.
Currently, there are plans to design and
construct the next generation of AztechSats—
now in the form of a constellation—following
the same model of cooperation with NASA and
involving Mexican universities.
World Space Week
Each year, from 4 – 10 October, AEM organises
World Space Week (WSW) all over Mexico, with
the purpose of disseminating the benefits of
space among the general population. Among
the activities promoted are lectures, workshops,
demonstrations, simulations, projections,
scientific-artistic exhibitions, contests and
discussion forums. These events are performed in
schools, museums, planetariums and universities
all over Mexico, which sponsor and organise
activities locally. Dr Mendieta Jiménez, AEM´s
Director General is the current chair of the
World Space Week Association, an international
organisation devoted to promoting the celebration
of WSW events worldwide. Mexico ranked third
in number of venues among all the countries that
organised WSW events in 2018.
Encouraging youth
Jóvenes Hacia el Espacio, or Youth Towards Space,
is an AEM educational programme that enables
and encourages young people’s interest in science,
develops their scientific skills, and motivates them
to finish secondary school and get into university.
In 2015, three children in this programme from the
state of Tlaxcala won NASA´s ‘Mars Trekker Global
Teen Summit’, where they competed against
more than 120 children from different countries.
The goal of the contest was to get young people
involved in the process of developing a sustainable
habitat for a future NASA mission to Mars in 2030.
R&D funding
One of the main concerns of AEM is the funding
of space projects in Mexican organisations. For
this reason, AEM, together with the National
Council of Science and Technology of Mexico
AztechSat-1 a 1U
CubeSat, will be the first
Mexican satellite to be
deployed from the
International Space Station.
“To make
space
accessible, it
needs to be
done in an
affordable
way, where
international
collaboration
must be at the
heart of the
inclusion of
this region in
the space age”

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(CONACYT) operate a fund to support research
and development in space activities. This fund has
been in operation since 2015 and to date it has
financed more than 50 research and development
projects from universities and private companies
in different research areas, ranging from small
satellite development to the use of space imagery
for the detection of tropical diseases. The fund has
proven to be a driving force for the launch of the
space sector in Mexico.
International positioning
In its role of leading space policy in Mexico, AEM
has signed agreements with many countries with
the purpose of implementing cooperative activities
with foreign organisations in the space sector. These
countries include: United States, Russia, France, Italy,
Ukraine, Argentina, Paraguay and many others.
Mexico is an important actor in United Nations
space activities. For instance, in 2018, Mexico
chaired the 61st session of the UN Committee on
the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), as
well as the special segment UNISPACE+50. More
recently, AEM was invited by the Asia-Pacific
Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), to
become a permanent member of that organisation
and thus move to a higher level in the scientific-
technological cooperation.
As a promoter of international cooperation in
space activities, AEM hosted the International
Astronautical Congress (IAC) in September 2016,
under the motto: ‘Making space accessible and
affordable to all countries.’ Dr Mendieta Jiménez
believes that for all nations, but particularly for the
Latin American countries, access to space is a door
to progress, new technologies and inspirational
science for a region where the young population is
a vast majority. “But to make space accessible,” he
said, “it needs to be done in an affordable way, where
international collaboration must be at the heart of
the inclusion of this region in the space age.”
By bringing IAC to the Latin American
Region, AEM started a new era of international
collaboration to solve common problems using
space science and technology.
Mission to the Moon
In 2015, AEM signed an agreement with Astrobotic,
a spin-off company of Carnegie Mellon University
in Pennsylvania, to carry a payload provided by
AEM to the Moon on the Peregrine Lander, a lunar
lander the company is developing. The agency
issued a request for proposals for the development
of the payload and selected a team of researchers
from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México, UNAM, to develop it. The payload will be
the first sponsored by AEM to fly beyond Earth
orbit. According to Astrobotic, its first mission to
the Moon will take place in 2021 and, if the mission
is successful, Mexico will become the first Latin
American country to fly a scientific instrument to
the surface of the Moon.
Ambitious plans
AEM recognises that space activity is becoming
strategic in the global economy. For this reason,
in 2017 the agency launched its Orbit Plan 2.0, an
AztechSat1 will be the first
Mexican satellite to be
deployed from the ISS and it is
recognised as a model for Latin
American countries
Dr Francisco Javier
Mendieta Jiménez was
appointed as the Mexican
Space Agency’s first
Director General on 1
November 2011.
Forerunner to AEM,
Mexico’s National
Commission of Outer
Space (CONEE) was
devoted to doing
experimental work in
rocketry,
telecommunications and
atmospheric studies from
1962 until November 1977.
Communication&TransportationMinistry

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ambitious road map to develop the space industry
in Mexico. The plan states that by 2026, Mexico
should hold one percent of the global space
market for a value of US$3 billion. Furthermore,
nine years after that, Mexico should be in the top
three global market leaders for the sector and
guarantee space access by 2036.
To achieve these goals, the plan delineates
a series of steps that are being executed in
coordination with local governments, industry and
academia. Among these steps are the creation of
several Regional Space Centres dedicated to R&D
in space technology.
Currently, AEM is constructing two Regional
Space Research Centres. One, located in the
Mexican State of Zacatecas, is devoted to
developing space communications. The other, in
the State of Mexico, will develop small satellites,
and will specialise in rocket design and provide
data processing services on satellite imagery.
These centres will operate in partnership with
state governments and R&D companies to ensure
their sustainability by providing services to start-
ups and small-to-medium companies to facilitate
innovation and the development of new products.
The future
AEM is the gateway to Mexico´s international space
engagement by ensuring a long-term plan that
supports the development and application of space
technologies and develops the country’s domestic
space industry. This plan involves the coordination
of universities, scientists, engineers, and investors to
drive the technology and deliver the benefits of space
to the Mexican people and humankind, as well as to
develop Mexico’s indigenous space industry capability.
As a young space agency, AEM faces the challenge
of long-term government support. For this reason,
one of AEM’s strategies is the creation and operation
of public-private partnerships for its more
ambitious projects, like the deployment of satellite
constellations for Earth observation to service the
needs of the Mexican population and the operation
of a spaceport for the launch of small payloads to low
Earth orbit. This strategy is currently in place and
will be complemented by the participation of state
government and international funds.
AEM has opened a new era of involvement
in space by bringing new generations of
Mexicans unimaginable opportunities for their
development. However, its main benefit is that it
gives a whole nation the opportunity to dream of
what might be ahead.
About the author
Carlos Duarte is responsible for the development of Mexico’s space
education policy and establishing joint programmes with other
organisations such as middle schools and universities to improve Mexico’s
human capital in space science and technology. He has responsibility for
developing the workforce that will design, construct and operate Mexican
space infrastructure according to the Mexican Space Agency’s vision. Mr
Duarte has a long career in top management and engineering positions
in both the private and public sectors, and academia. He holds an
engineering degree in communications from The National Autonomous
University of Mexico, and a Master’s Degree in Scientific Instrumentation
from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
AEM has opened a new era of
involvement in space by bringing
new generations of Mexicans
unimaginable opportunities for
their development
Below: Rodolfo Neri
Vela, a Payload Specialist
aboard the joint NASA/
European Space Agency
STS-61-B Atlantis mission
in 1985, was Mexico’s first
astronaut.
Bottom: American-
Mexican José Hernández
works controls on the
aft flight deck of Space
Shuttle Discovery
during the STS-128
mission. Originating
from a Mexican migrant
farming family, he was
an ‘unofficial’ Mexican
astronaut in 2009.
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