Mexican nanosatellite launch is scheduled for October 2019

Mexico, Nov. 22 (Notimex).- The Mexican Space Agency (AEM, for its acronym in Spanish) announced that the Mexican nanosatellite "AzTechSAT-1" was approved by NASA ("Delta Critical Design Review"), developed at Popular Autonomous University of Puebla (UPAEP), and its launch is scheduled for October 2019. According to a statement, the general director of AEM, Javier Mendieta Jiménez, said that this project, supported financially by the Sector Fund CONACYT-AEM and with the advice of NASA, "will literally bring Mexican talent to new heights, when launched from the International Space Station." Fernando Rodríguez Contreras, a student at the Faculty of Electronics of UPAEP, on behalf of his colleagues and professors who are part of the development of AzTechSAT-1, declared that it is a privilege to work on this project, with people from the Mexican Space Agency and the mentors of NASA, since thanks to everybody´s effort, this revision was achieved. "It is a great honor to represent our country, to be pioneers and as students, we are taking this job very seriously and we are dedicating so much passion to Mexico as a country to move forward and start this new Mexican space age," he said after the Delta review, whose final panel headed by NASA included experts from AEM, the former astronaut José Hernández Moreno, and the professor of the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" (MIT), Paulo Lozano. In the same sense, the director of Space Programs of the Division of Advanced Exploration Systems of NASA, Andrés Martínez, said that the Delta Critical Design Review, "is a very important stage for the project to be sure that the design will meet all the requirements of the Mission, since Delta means an extra revision, in addition to last July where 9 of the 12 work areas were approved, "he explained. Martinez said that after these revisions, the project is already in the process of scheduling the launch for the month of October 2019. "NASA has already granted us the launch date, and we already know that in that month the AzTechSAT- 1 will be in space," he said. For his part, the Vice Chancellor of Postgraduate Studies and Research UPAEP, Eugenio Urrutia Albisua, said that the University has once again complied with the procedures established by NASA, and noted that in addition to the support of the Sector Fund CONACYT-AEM other economic support from NASA and other agencies linked to the project were added, in addition to the UPAEP itself. Likewise, given the way in which the project has managed to add invaluable support, such as those of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua and the Mexican Space Cluster MX Space, they highlighted: "This is the beginning of the detonation of space development in Mexico, thanks to the interest of the Mexican authorities and the Federal Government for supporting this type of initiatives".   NTX/MDT/JCG