Mexico Moves Ahead With Building Launch Complex on the Yucatan With Russian Help

RIA Novosti reports that Mexico is moving ahead with plans to build a Caribbean launch complex, an initiative urged on by a U.S. astronaut and assisted by the Russian space agency, Roskosmos:

Mexico will create its own space center on the Yucatan Peninsula, deputy economy minister Francisco Pimentel said. “In the next few days, US astronaut Jose Hernandez and engineer Fernando de la Pena will travel there to carry out an inspection, in order to study concrete details of the future construction,” he said.

Hernandez is a space shuttle astronaut whose father emigrated from Mexico. In 2007, he proposed that Mexico establish its own space agency, an effort that later bore fruit as AEXA (Agencia Espacial Mexicana).

The article quotes Hernandez as saying that it will take about 10 years for Mexico to be able to launch its own rockets. That effort will be getting an assist from Roskosmos:

Russia and Mexico signed an agreement on cooperation in space research and exploration for peaceful purposes in 1996. In March 2009, a delegation of experts from Russian space agency Roscosmos visited the Latin American state to discuss the creation of the Mexican space agency with local lawmakers.

After the talks, Roscosmos deputy head Sergei Savelyev said Russia was ready to help Mexico develop its national space program on a commercial basis.

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