Mexico

Abstract

The entry of Mexico in the space arena started at the beginning of the space race in 1957. Since then, Mexico’s interest in space has considerably expanded to nowadays encompass multiple issues, from the strengthening of space science and technology to the formation of a national space industry. Moreover, Mexico’s active participation in international space fora and the adoption of international space cooperation agreements shows its increased enthusiasm to take advantage of the benefits of this domain. This chapter presents a descriptive analysis of Mexico’s space sector. The first sections focus on a general overview of the country and the history of Mexico’s space activities. Then, the economic perspective of the sector is analysed particularly in relation to the institutional space budgets and the Mexican space industry. Next, the main characteristics of Mexico’s space and satellite policies and legal frameworks, as well as the space actors responsible to implement them, are presented. Mexico’s participation in the consolidation of international space law, and the current space cooperation agreements celebrated by Mexico are also noted. The last sections focus on issues concerning Mexico’s satellite capabilities, space technology development, and capacity building and outreach, with special emphasis on space education.

Appendix

See Table 12.14.

Table 12.14 Institutional contact information in Mexico (2019)