ACE - Chilean Space Agency

The Agencia Chilena del Espacio (ACE, Chilean Space Agency) is Chile's national space coordination body established in 2001 under what is now the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation (MINCIENCIA), responsible for regulating and promoting Chile's space activities, facilitating international space cooperation, and positioning Chile within the global space economy — leveraging the country's remarkable natural advantage for ground-based astronomy and satellite ground station operations.

Chile's primary space asset is its geography: the Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the world's driest non-polar desert and one of the highest-altitude inhabited plateaus on Earth, creating exceptional atmospheric conditions — minimal humidity, minimal light pollution, and exceptional transparency at millimeter/submillimeter and optical wavelengths — that make Chilean territory host to the densest concentration of cutting-edge astronomical observatories anywhere on the planet. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA, operational since 2013) deploys 66 high-precision antennas on the 5,000m Chajnantor plateau. The European Southern Observatory's VLT (Very Large Telescope, four 8.2m mirrors at Paranal) is the world's most productive ground-based optical observatory by publications. The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT, 39.3m primary mirror) is under construction at Cerro Armazones adjacent to Paranal, expected first light approximately 2028. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (formerly LSST) at Cerro Pachón began commissioning in 2024-2025 and will conduct the world's deepest wide-field photographic survey of the southern sky over its 10-year mission.

For satellite operations, Chile's clear, low-humidity atmosphere makes it ideal for satellite ground stations: ESA, CONAE (Argentina), and commercial operators including Inmarsat have established ground stations on Chilean territory. ACE coordinates Chile's ITU spectrum registrations, Chilean university CubeSat programs, and participation in COPUOS (UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space). The SUCHAI CubeSat program at Universidad de Chile (SUCHAI-1 launched 2017) represents Chile's domestic satellite manufacturing capability. Chile increasingly attracts data mining applications for mineral exploration EO — the Atacama's lithium brine deposits, copper mines, and mining company satellites represent a growing domestic satellite data market. Argentina's CONAE (SAOCOM SAR satellite operator) represents a more advanced Latin American peer space agency.