The first nanosatellite to be completely designed and made in Mexico will be launched from Cape Canaveral in December on a mission operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Approved by NASA last year, the AztecSat-1 was designed by students at the Popular Autonomous University of Puebla (UPAEP), together with the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) and the private space initiative MX Space.

“It is now ready to be launched into space,” said Andrés Martínez, director of special programs in NASA’s Advanced Systems Division. “It will be a historic day.”

The launch will take place on December 4 on Mission SpaceX-19, the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) reported.

“Our youth are making history,” said AEM director Javier Mendieta Jiménez. “It will be the first satellite to be launched during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It represents an achievement of young Mexican talent in the Fourth Transformation.”

The nanosatellite will be put into orbit by SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket, on which the Mexican development team worked.

“Their performance is now comparable to many NASA engineers,” said Mendieta.

Once in orbit, the AztecSat-1 will be allowed to interconnect and transmit data to the Globalstar satellite constellation.

AEM’s head of the AztecSat-1 project, Carlos Duarte Muñoz, praised the young people’s achievement.

“This launch will demonstrate that the talent of our young people can make history and is literally infinite,” Duarte said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)