Mexico to Build Spaceport, builds Ties with Russia

Mexico plans to begin construction of a new space agency, Aexa, to build an equatorial satellite launch complex this year. The facility will be located in the southern state of Quintana Roo on the border with Belize. The location was chosen after extensive studies in part because of its proximity to the Equator.

It also looks as if Aexa will be getting assistance from the Russian space agency Roskosmos. Deputy Director Segrey Saveliev recently led a delegation to Mexico to discuss bilateral ties, the Russian news agency TASS reports:

Russian experts held negotiations with the Mexican Congress Senate Committee on Science and Technology, as well as with the initiative group on development of the national space agency.

The visit took place following the initiative of the Mexican party, Saveliev explained. Mexican space agency is to be established in a few months. After that, Roscosmos will negotiate the issues with the authorized state agency.

According to Saveliev, “reliable legal basis is required” to commence discussions of the space programs with Mexico. Mexican party is interested in cooperation in the satellite communication, remote sensing programs, as well as in the Russian Global Navigation System (GLONASS). Thus, prospective of bilateral cooperation are realistic.

Russia plans to build own orbit space station

Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will propose to the government the building of a low-orbit space station to support future exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Alexei Krasnov, director of manned flight programmes at Roscosmos said: "We will soon propose to our government a project to construct a low-orbit complex, which could serve as a foundation for the implementation of the lunar programme and later on the Mars programme,"

Russia and other countries, are looking at the Moon in a mid-term perspective, and would want not only to go there and come back, but to establish a lunar base, which would allow us to start exploring Mars in the future. These are our intentions, but we are working hard to ensure that these plans get adequate financial and legislative support from the government."

Roscosmos will propose extending the use of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2020. We are considering the extension of ISS service life at least until 2020, but this decision must be adopted by the governments of all 15 countries participating in the project. The project currently involves NASA, Roscosmos, the Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and 11 members of the European Space Agency.

Russia, a pioneer in robotic lunar research, abandoned its lunar exploration programme with the end of the Moon race in the mid-1970s, but the idea of exploring the Earth's natural satellite has been revisited recently, due to ambitious international projects to develop the Moon's resources and to use it as a stepping-stone for further space exploration.

Roscosmos earlier said that its first unmanned flight to the Moon would include a lunar orbiter to fire 12 penetrators across diverse regions to create a seismic network. These will be used to research the origins of the Moon.

The orbital assembly of the ISS began with the launch of the US-funded and Russian-built Zarya module from Kazakhstan November 20, 1998. Zarya, which means dawn, was the ISS's first component.

The project has taken longer than the planned five years, and as of July 2008 the station was approximately 76 percent complete.